Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Devil's Triangle
by SharkAttack719
Summary: A year after retrieving Zeus' bolt and Hades' helm, the camp's weak borders start to fail. There is a way to save it and bringing a couple friends, he sneaks out of camp. On the way, though, he discovers something about himself he never knew. AU. Sequel to Percy Jackson and the Olympians: On the Run. COMPLETE. NEXT IN SERIES IS UP. Recommend "Everlasting Hero." Find on profile page
1. Prologue

**Welcome to my next story. Hope you enjoy this prologue.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**

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**Prologue**

A shadowy figure was up on Half-Blood Hill. He seemed to be looking around for anybody that could see him. The figure was alert, the cloak he was wearing constantly moving. The figure walked up to the largest pine tree that stood tall and proud on top of the hill.

Lightning flashed in the sky, the atmosphere rumbling like it was angry.

Flashes of light streaked across the valley behind the figure. If one were a special type of person called a demigod, he or she would be able to see that there was, in fact, a camp in the valley. Around the magical camp was nothing, farmhouses and dirt stretching for miles around. However, right in that valley, tucked into the bottom, was a camp for those special people called demigods.

Most lights were off except for the constant light of the large farmhouse that sat a quarter mile into the valley from the hill. There was an armory, a forge, camp cabins and a canoe lake. It was the perfect place for those who were half-god, half-mortal.

The figure sneered as he looked upon the camp, feeling all of the hatred he felt toward the gods appear throughout his body. His empty left fist curled into one of abhorrence. The figure disliked the gods as he felt that he and his mother, who was a minor god, never got enough respect in the Greek world. He felt that the minor gods should get more respect, maybe not to the equal of the Olympians, but enough to be recognized as gods.

That was one of the reasons why he had joined the Titans. They were cruel beings who wanted to take control of the world once again after their children, the gods, had overthrown them from Mount Othrys. Their leader, Kronos, wanted revenge and the figure would do anything to help gained respect for himself and his mother.

Kronos promised a better future where everyone would be treated an equal. Kronos promised to save Western Civilization, only destroying Olympus to dust. Othrys would rise again the a new Golden Age would start, beginning the best era in the history of the universe.

The figure nodded, knowing his mission. He was to distract that camp. Kronos was nowhere near patient, but he knew exactly what he wanted to do. He was going to wait. He was going to make the half-bloods think they were safe, but lure the children of the Big Three out of the safety of camp. He would then capture them and use them to rise from the depths of Tartarus and once again become King of Othrys. If that didn't work, Kronos had a backup plan. He and the figure both knew a way to strike at camp...to pierce its heart.

The figure brought out a small tube and a vial. Inside the vial was a dark liquid that looked somewhat like tar. It was as deadly as it looked. It was a special poison from Tartarus that only one thing in the entire world could heal. And Kronos intended to show the demigods how to find it.

Kronos whispered in the figure's head, _Now! Strike now and leave. Camp will slowly deteriorate before plummeting to a monster's lunch. The son of Poseidon will be warned. He will bring the daughter of Zeus. Make sure to get the spy to think of a quest to go to get the Golden Fleece. Now!_

The figure stabbed his knife into the tree and poured some of the poison into the small tube that would be inserted into the tree. He dug a few small holes all around the tree and poured some of the poison into each of the holes. The figure smiled when he felt the condition of the tree begin to deteriorate.

"Revenge will be mine," he swore. "I will bring balance to the world and earn some respect from it. I will kill you one day, Percy Jackson."

Then a portal opened up next to Ethan Nakamura and he stepped in.

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**Hey everyone,**

**This is my next story, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Golden Fleece. I hope you enjoyed this prologue as there is more to come. Polls will be going up soon for this story.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	2. Nightmares & Breakfast

**Hey everyone,**

**What's up! This first chapter was pretty short. In fact, I think most of the chapters in this story are going to be pretty short because there isn't much to write about. Don't expect 7,000 word long chapters anymore. I think that the average will be a minimum of 2,500 and a maximum of 4,500 words. I know, short chapters, but unlike the previous story, I'm only writing about one certain event. I will try to expand and make lots of details, but I may fail at that. I'll try though.**

**No polls yet, but reviews, favorites, follows and views all help my self-esteem go up.**

**I'd like to thank all of those who read my previous story and those who reviewed for the** **prologue:**  
Perhea II, R3D N3BuLOS17Y, Scaket, FaTaLClanWii, Mundster Madman, Chaos Reincarnate, Maneden, xDelightedDreams, Slytherin Studios, mithun2389, ROC95, ArcheressxX, Die hard fan (Guest), Blackcurse11, LyingTruth123, redlox2, writerofher0wn & Alturial.

**With best regards,  
****SharkAttack719**

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**Περσεύς 1**

**Nightmares & Breakfast**

The dream was terrifying

That night, I had a horrendous dream that made my spirits plummet to the ground. Despite all of the wonderful stuff going on around me, like the fact that I almost made it through one whole school year without getting expelled, the dream had just torn that all down to rubble.

I should've been happy with the fact that I had a few friends at school to go with me every day to support me in my studies. I should've been happy with the fact that I hadn't gotten attacked by monsters in almost three hundred days. I should've been happy with the fact that I had gotten a C average. But I wasn't.

I didn't know what had happened at camp or why it had happened, but there was something wrong. Something at camp had changed and through my dream, I could see what had happened. I didn't know whether Luke or Thalia had the same dreams as I did.

The dream had started of normal enough, the daylight shining over camp, the beautiful Greek buildings scattered around the valley that was Camp Half-Blood. Everything seemed normal, the few campers who stayed year-round doing their regular activities. Pegasi, which I could kind of call on now, flew overhead. The banging of metal from the forge rang in the air like a constant bell. It was why a conch shell was used instead of a bell to signify an important event, announcement or meal.

Everything seemed so calm and peaceful. I wasn't there, so I couldn't speak or make any noise with my mouth, but I could sense the mood of the environment.

There was something odd about camp, something that made it seem different. It looked no different on the outside; however, on the inside, it was as if the life source of camp had been taken away. The dream then whisked away, only to be replaced with another version of camp. This time, it was night.

I saw more campers now, the summer campers starting to return for another summer at their favorite camp in the world. However, on the campers' faces was an emotion that I had never seen on the campers' faces before. They had serious faces, like battle was going to come soon. Their faces seemed solemn, like a horrific event occurred. I continued wondering what was wrong as the dream continued. Then it showed me what was wrong.

At the top of Half-Blood Hill, there was a pine tree that stood tall and proud. It was created by Zeus from the souls of brave Greek demigods who had fought their last stand on top of this hill during the American Civil War. The Demigod Civil War occurred parallel to the mortal war, causing Camp Half-Blood to split into two, some siding with the Confederates and others with the Union.

Usually, with all of the strong spirits inside, it would have held strong and sturdy, but now it was weak and dying. Why? Someone had poisoned it. The pine tree looked sickly, twigs and branches falling off of the dying bark. Now, its needles were yellow. A huge pile of dead ones littered the base of the tree. All around the tree were knife marks that had been stabbed into the bark. Each of the holes had green and black sap oozing out of them, looking horrible.

A sliver of ice ran through my chest. Now I understood why the camp was so different. The magical borders were failing because the pine tree was dying.

A flash of an image appeared in my dream. In the image, a hooded figure held a vial and a dagger. Then the image played as if it were footage from a security camera.

The figure stabbed the tree multiple times with his dagger and poured a certain amount of a black poison into each of the holes. When he was finished he looked out toward the camp where the only source of light were the lights of the Big House. Then he looked west, toward the Empire State Building. His nose and eyes were covered by shadows, but I saw the bare trace of a sneer from his lips. He spoke something I couldn't hear and stepped into a black portal that appeared next to him.

Then I woke in a sweat.

I sat upright on my bed. My entire body was drenched in the salty liquid, as if my dream caused me to actually sweat. I looked to my right toward the window. The rising daylight filtered through the window, making me squint.

I reached under my pillow and closed my fingers around my deadly ballpoint pen that I always slept with. I brought it out, studying the Ancient Greek writing engraved on the side: _Anaklusmos_. Riptide.

I held it out toward me bedroom window, making sure that there was enough room so that it wouldn't hit the glass when I uncapped it. Then I pulled off the cap slowly, feeling the weight of the sword in my hand. I hadn't used Riptide that often in the past few months and my arm felt slightly heavy. On the other hand, I was a quick learner so I was sure that I could get used to Riptide easily.

I swung the sword around a little bit, getting used to the weight of the celestial bronze. Then I took a swipe across my body. I swung a little too far and hit the wall.

I made a deep cut into the wall and got it stuck. I yanked once, but the sword didn't budge. It was as stuck as something would be if glued by superglue. I yanked again, yet the sword didn't move. I continued yanking and pulling at the sword until it finally broke free. However, I had so much momentum from tugging the sword, I tumbled backwards and crashed into the wall.

I was sure that it had made a loud noise and I groaned. Now Thalia and Luke would be mad at me for waking them up. Then again, it was a school day - the last of the year - and we would have had to wake up sooner or later. Contradicting that, though, was the fact that Luke and Thalia weren't morning people.

"I was sleeping, Percy!" yelled Thalia. "Thanks a lot!"

"You're like yelling in my ear, Thalia!" Luke yelled from the living room.

"I'm not even close to you!" shouted Thalia. "I'm at least twenty feet away from you!"

I shook my head at the two's fanatics. They argued as much as I did with Thalia. However, their bickering was usually more pointless and they sounded like siblings who didn't want a little sister or older brother.

I opened the door of my room and stretched while I walked out to the kitchen. I was still in my pajamas so I wasn't going to eat yet; however, I usually started making breakfast before the other two finished it off. "What do you want today?" I called.

"Sausage and eggs!" yelled Thalia.

"Bacon and eggs!" called Luke.

I shrugged and brought out some bacon, some sausages, a few waffles and a few eggs. You see, Chiron had supplied us with the house, creating a fake account to keep the house in. Chiron manipulated the bank people to give us enough money to live off of, but he made us do our own work by doing our own grocery shopping and our own clothes shopping.

Thalia spent the most on clothes, her punk-styled clothing costing quite a bit of money.

Luke was first to take a shower, then Thalia, and then me.

During my shower, I continued thinking about the whole camp problem and the poisoned borders. I knew exactly who did it, even if his face was concealed in the shadows. He had wanted to take the gods down ever since his quest to Florida all of those years ago. He and his mom resented the gods, wanting more respect for themselves. Ethan Nakamura, son of Nemesis, had poisoned camp.

Me, Thalia and Luke were going to camp tomorrow so I could tell Chiron about my theory tomorrow. I never expected that things weren't going to turn out as I expected.

When I finished taking a shower, I went up to the kitchen where Thalia and Luke were sitting quietly and patiently, waiting for the food. We had all learned the hard way that I was the best at handling the food because whenever Thalia or Luke tried to make breakfast, lunch or dinner, the other would come in and fight with them, causing a giant mess in the kitchen.

To be honest, leaving me in charge of food was probably one of the worst decisions that my friends have ever made, but at least the food still looked like food after I cooked it. Since today was a special day, I made myself blue waffles and blue eggs. Thalia and Luke got regular colored food.

Once, I had asked them if they wanted blue food, but they declined. I didn't know what was so bad about blue food. It still tastes awesome. I was ecstatic about my blue food and the fact that I was about to pass seventh grade without getting expelled, but I guess I wasn't really digging into my food that day because Luke just stared at me.

"What's wrong, dude?" he asked. "You aren't digging into your food like usual. Neither are you, Pinecone Face."

Thalia scowled, but didn't reply. She just sighed into her food.

I looked up at Luke. "It's nothing. I just had a bad dream. There's nothing really to it."

"Bad dream according to demigod standards or bad dream according to mortal standards?" he asked.

"Demigod standards," I replied.

"Same," Thalia input. "A really bad dream."

I looked at her. "Did you have the same one as me? The one about 'being in trouble'?"

Thalia nodded. "I just can't believe it. It's horrible. The fact that what happened makes me sick to the stomach a little. If it's true, I don't know what I'm going to do."

"Neither can I," I replied.

Luke raised his hand like he was going to answer a question for class. "Um, can you guys fill me in on whatever you're talking about? I'm really confused as to what you're referring to."

"Camp," I said.

At the same time, Thalia said, "Grover."

"Wait, what?" Thalia and I questioned each other.

"What's wrong with camp?" she asked.

"What's wrong with Grover?" I asked. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. "Okay. I'll go first and then you tell me what's wrong with Grover."

"No," interrupted Thalia. "I'll tell you my story first and then you can tell me yours. Anyway, I had this dream last night where Grover was in Florida, St. Augustine to be exact. He was running down the street and there was this thing following him. It was giant. The wind was blowing like a hurricane, knocking over palm trees like they were toys. Grover was holding his human shoes in his arms and he looked terrified. Wet sand was caked in his fur. The giant shadow-like thing following him swatted a street lamp aside and it burst into a shower of sparks. Then he muttered something about getting away and having to warn us. After, he ran into a dead-end courtyard of shops. He decided to hide of a place called ST. AUGUSTINE BRIDAL BOUTIQUE. For a second, the shadow passed and all was silent except for the pattering rain. Then lightning flashed, the roof of the store blew up and a monster bellowed, 'MINE!' That was at about five this morning."

Luke and I sat there in stunned silence for a couple of seconds taking all of that in.

"Wow," I replied. "That is pretty bad. But my story is worse. Camp's in-"

Suddenly, the alarm clock set to the time we needed to leave at went off. I cursed and hopped up, running for the beeping machine. I switched the alarm off before turning it back on for tomorrow. I wanted to get to camp as early as possible.

"Looks like we have to go," sighed Luke. "Well, tell the story when we get back from school. Or maybe you could tell us at lunch. I'm kind of glad Meriwether is grade six to twelve so I can stay with you guys. Sometimes it sucks being two years older than you guys."

"Yeah," said Thalia. "We'd better get to Tyson before he gets all scared. Then he puts his head in his hands and weeps like a water fountain. I've never looked into his eyes and I never want to. They must be like water faucets."

"Don't be so mean," I said. "He's just sensitive."

We walked out the door and jogged downstairs to catch the Number Two train.

As we stepped outside, I glanced at the brownstone building across the street. Just for a second I saw a dark shape in the morning sunlight - a human silhouette against the brick wall, a shadow that belonged to no one.

Then it rippled and vanished.

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**Hey everyone,**

**This is part two of experiment one. It's like a science experiment except with writing. I kind of wish I could work on my poetry so that I can have Apollo say them. Well, then again, Apollo's poetry is pretty bad... Anyway, thanks for all of your support and I hope that you continue to support this story no matter how bad it may be. :)**

**Question of the Chapter: Why does Rachel's full name, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, describe Rachel perfectly? (If you're stumped, I'll give you a hint. CAPITALIZATION!)****  
**

**I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the story above.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	3. Playing Dodgeball with Monsters

**Hey everyone,**

**Remember how I said that the chapters are going to be a lot shorter? Well *laughs nervously* actually I kind of lied. I honestly thought that the chapters would be slower, but this chapter was actually 6,130 words. I can't believe it. Also, a lot more work is coming up so I'm trying to feed you enough chapters to live off of for now before I have long breaks between writing (at least I think that it will be like that; if it isn't then I will update regularly which is like every 2 to 4 days). Thanks for reading this chapter and I apologize for any grammatical mistakes in the following chapter.**

**Thanks to those who reviewed:**

chronos the cookie thief, Word To The Wise, James1996, currymonsta1512, redlox2, Die hard fan, Mundster Madman, LyingTruth123, , drpend, Guest, Guest, Blackcurse11 & Justrockzyxxx.

**With best regards,  
****SharkAttack719**

* * *

**Περσεύς 2**

**Playing Dodgeball with Monsters**

Our day started normal. Or as normal as it ever gets at Meriwether College Prep.

See, it's this "progressive" school in downtown Manhattan, which means we sit on beanbag chairs instead of at desks, and we don't get grades, and the teachers wear jeans and rock concert T-shirts to work.

That's all cool with me. I mean, Thalia and I were ADHD and dyslexic, like most half-bloods, so I'd never done that great in regular schools even before they kicked me out. The only bad thing about Meriwether was that the teachers always looked on the bright side of things, and the kids weren't always ... well, bright.

Take my first class today: English. The whole middle school had read this book called _Lord of the Flies, _where all these kids get marooned on an island and go psycho.

So for our final exam, our teachers sent us into the break yard to spend an hour with no adult supervision to see what would happen. What happened was a massive wedgie contest between the seventh and eighth graders, two pebble fights, and a full-tackle basketball game.

The eighth grade bully, Matt Sloan, led most of those activities.

Sloan wasn't big or strong, but he acted like he was. He had eyes like a pit bull, and shaggy black hair, and he always dressed in expensive but sloppy clothes, like he wanted everybody to see how little he cared about his family's money. One of his front teeth was chipped from the time he'd taken his daddy's Porsche for a joyride and run into a PLEASE SLOW DOWN FOR CHILDREN sign.

Anyway, Sloan was giving everybody wedgies until he made the mistake of trying it on my friend Tyson.

Tyson was the only homeless kid at Meriwether College Prep. As near as Thalia, Luke and I could figure, he'd been abandoned by his parents when he was very young, probably because he was so ... different.

He was six-foot-three and built like the Abominable Snowman, but he cried a lot and was scared of just about everything, including his own reflection.

His face was kind of misshapen and brutal-looking. I couldn't tell you what color his eyes were because I could never make myself look higher than his crooked teeth. His voice was deep, but he talked funny, like a much younger kid—I guess because he'd never gone to school before coming to Meriwether. He wore tattered jeans, grimy size-twenty sneakers, and a plaid flannel shirt with holes in it. He smelled like a New York City alleyway, because that's where he lived, in a cardboard refrigerator box off 72nd Street.

Meriwether Prep had adopted him as a community service project so all the students could feel good about themselves. Unfortunately, most of them couldn't stand Tyson. Once they discovered he was a big softie, despite his massive strength and his scary looks, they made themselves feel good by picking on him. I was pretty much his only friend, along with Thalia and Luke, which meant he was _our _only friend at this school.

Anyway, Matt Sloan snuck up behind him and tried to give him a wedgie, and Tyson panicked. He swatted Sloan away a little too hard. Sloan flew fifteen feet and got tangled in the little kids' tire swing.

"You freak!" Sloan yelled. "Why don't you go back to your cardboard box!"

Tyson started sobbing. He sat down on the jungle gym so hard he bent the bar, and buried his head in his hands.

Thalia sneered at Sloan. I did too. "Take that back, Sloan!" I yelled.

"I would do anything to kill him right now," growled Thalia under her breath.

Sloan just sneered back at us. "Why even bother, Jackson? You might have had friends if you stick up for that freak. As for you, _Thalia_. You don't use your last name because your parents probably threw you on the street when you were a baby."

Thalia took a step forward and loud thunder rumbled in the clear sky. As everyone looked up wondering where the thunder came from, I barely managed to hold her back. I was mad myself, but Chiron drilled the fact that we weren't allowed to hurt mortals in my head. He said I was more contained than Thalia, but was angered almost as easily.

"Stop," I told her. "Wait until we have to."

By that time, everyone stopped looking at the sky and back toward us. Sloan sneered once more, "You two are just wimps. You losers could have had friends, but you stick up for the Abominable Freak-man."

I bit my tongue hard to stop myself from stringing together a chorus of swear words and go beat the living shit out of Sloan. Instead, I focused my anger on the water fountain and released all of my anger onto that. I didn't make the school blow up, but the water fountain exploded and that area of the playground became a mini water park.

Thalia tapped my shoulder and pointed at Sloan's goons. "Is it just me or are there more goons around him than usual?"

I took a closer look and frowned. Usually, Sloan only had two or three goons around him laughing, but today he had like, half a dozen more, and I was pretty sure I had never seen them before. I whispered back to Thalia, "No. I see them too. And I'm pretty sure I haven't seen them before."

We both shared a look. _Monsters?_ we questioned. It was a possibility and I filed it into my brain.

"Just wait till PE, Jackson," Sloan called. "You are _so_ dead."

When first period ended, our English teacher, Mr. de Milo, came outside to inspect the carnage. He pronounced that we'd understood _Lord of the Flies _perfectly. We all passed his course, and we should never, never grow up to be violent people.

Matt Sloan nodded earnestly, then gave me a chip-toothed grin.

I had to promise to buy Tyson an extra peanut butter sandwich at lunch to get him to stop sobbing. Thalia said she'd chip in some of her money.

Second period was social studies. In social studies, while we were drawing latitude/longitude maps, I opened my notebook and stared at the photo inside—my friend Annabeth on vacation in Washington, D.C. She was wearing jeans and a denim jacket over her orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. Her blond hair was pulled back in a bandanna. She was standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial with her arms crossed, looking extremely pleased with herself, like she'd personally designed the place.

See, Annabeth wants to be an architect when she grows up, so she's always visiting famous monuments and stuff. She's weird that way. She'd emailed Luke the picture after spring break. He'd printed a copy for all of us.

I wished Annabeth were here. She'd know what to make of my dream because she was a lot smarter than me, even if she was annoying sometimes.

I was about to close my notebook when Matt Sloan reached over and ripped the photo out of the rings.

"Hey!" I protested.

Sloan checked out the picture and his eyes got wide. "No way, Jackson. Who is that? She is _not_ your—"

"No, but give it back!" I snapped.

Sloan handed the photo to his ugly buddies, who snickered and started ripping it up to make spit wads. They were new kids who must've been visiting, because they were all wearing those stupid HI! MY NAME IS: tags from the admissions office. They must've had a weird sense of humor, too, because they'd all filled in strange names like: MARROW SUCKER, SKULL EATER, and JOE BOB. No human beings had names like that.

"These guys are moving here next year," Sloan bragged, like that was supposed to scare me. "I bet they can _pay _the tuition, too, unlike your retard friend."

"He's _not _retarded." I had to try really, really hard not to punch Sloan in the face.

"You're such a loser, Jackson. Good thing I'm gonna put you out of your misery last period."

His huge buddies chewed up my photo. I wanted to pulverize them, but I was still under strict orders from Chiron never to take my anger out on regular mortals, no matter how obnoxious they were. I had to save my fighting for monsters.

Still, part of me thought, if Sloan only knew who I really was...

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"I...I am a freak?" Tyson asked us at lunch.

"No," I promised, gritting my teeth. "Matt Sloan is the freak."

"And a big bully," Thalia said.

Tyson sniffled. "You are good friends. Miss you two, and Luke, next year if...if I can't..."

His voice trembled. I realized he didn't know if he'd be invited back next year for the community service project. I wondered if the headmaster had even bothered talking to him about it.

"Don't worry, big guy," I managed. "Everything's going to be fine."

Tyson gave me such a grateful look I felt like a big liar. How could I promise a kid like him that _anything _would be fine?

Then I saw Luke coming over with some ninth grade girls following him. They were all dressed like Barbie dolls, with all of the makeup on their faces. Honestly, it kind of made them look like they were actually made of plastic.

"Ugh," Thalia groaned. "Here come the suck-ups."

Luke sat down at our table and greeted us, "Hey, guys."

Tyson was about to respond when one of the girls that tailed Luke interrupted. She looked disgusted, "Why do you hang out with these seventh grade losers? Why don't you hang out with us?"

Luke turned away from Barbie #1. "I don't hang out with Barbie dolls."

"Come on, honey," she said. "You'll totally love hanging out with us. Appearance is just a part of us. Our personalities are totally, like, awesome."

"Oh yeah!" Luke smiled. "Did I forget to mention that I hate people who make fun of my friends?" He gave them a smile that only Luke could give: cruel but charming.

One of the girls was holding a cup of water in her hand. She sneered at me, Thalia and Tyson. "Get a loser friend. Luke is ours." Then she looked at Thalia. "He'll never be yours."

Thalia raised a finger, but I grabbed it before she could do anything. "Allow me," I told her.

I turned to the Barbie dolls and gave them a fake smile. "Hi, girls. If you don't mind, Luke hates your guts so get out of here."

"Don't talk to me like that, _loser_," Barbie #1 said with disdain.

"Why can't I?"

"Because you're a loser."

I flicked a hand and made the water explode at the three Barbie dolls. Their makeup started to run and their expensive clothes getting ruined. Thalia and I high fived. I smirked at the former Barbie dolls, "Who's the loser now?"

A few heads turned our way and they started laughing when they saw the messed up faces of the girls. I wasn't sure how to describe it because it was too funny to look at, that my thought process seemed to halt for a second. The girl who held the cup was glared at by the other two.

"It wasn't me," she stuttered, trying to explain. "I...I don't know how! It...it was like..."

The other two just huffed and stormed off, the third girl running after them in her heels, stumbling and tripping.

Luke laughed and looked at us. "Thanks for getting rid of them. They get _so_ annoying. Anyway, what's happened so far. Halfway through the day and nothing abnormal has happened."

My jaw tightened. Thalia explained to Luke what had happened during the English exam. By the end of the story, he was fuming. All demigods experienced bullying, even Luke who seemed perfect in every way, and most hated it. I was pretty sure I was the worst because if I didn't control myself, I was sure the entire school would be in flames.

Luke didn't look at Tyson's face, but he put an arm around the big guy. "Don't worry, Tyson. You're not the freak. If you want, I can teach the guy a lesson."

I coughed. "You're not supposed to...you know..."

"Don't worry," he smiled. "I know. But, just wondering, you guys have PE last class, right?"

"Yup," Thalia responded.

"Well, I have nothing important in the last class today so I could come by the gym and maybe help you in beating Sloan at dodgeball," suggested Luke. "I mean, I've seen Coach Nunley. He won't give a crap about me being there, no matter what Sloan says."

"Actually, Tyson, Percy and I are actually a pretty good team on our own," said Thalia. "There's just one little problem about today."

"What's that?" Luke asked.

Thalia explained the newcomers. "Usually Sloan only has two or three goons around him, but today, we saw him with at least half a dozen more. We suspect they might be monsters, but we can't be sure yet."

"Oh!" Luke suddenly exclaimed. "Have you guys been hearing voices today? It sounds eerily familiar. It also sounds feminine. I swear every time I turn around there's nothing there."

Thalia and I frowned. "No. We haven't heard voices today," we said.

Tyson just sat there, his extra peanut butter sandwich long gone. I kind of felt bad for him, not knowing what we were talking about, but I couldn't tell him anything anyway. He was a mortal and I couldn't expose our secret to him unless he was caught in a sticky situation with us. I mean, there was always the possibility that the Mist might make him delusional or the fact that he could've seen through the Mist.

"That's weird," sighed Luke.

The bell rung.

"Well, looks like we gotta go to class," said Luke. "I'll see you guys in PE."

Then, he strode off in the opposite direction in which Thalia, Tyson and I needed to head in. Thalia groaned, "Great. We have our science exam next. My partner is Corey Bailer, the computer geek. How the Hades am I supposed to do a _science_ exam with him?"

I noticed Tyson giving Thalia a weird look. "Oh, Thalia is kind of obsessed with Greek mythology. You know how kids say 'what the hell'?" He nodded. "Ancient Greeks said 'what the Hades'."

Tyson just nodded and continued walking beside us. Thalia gave me an apologizing look, but I shrugged it off. It was just a slip of words. It did no harm. Besides, all demigods usually said "what the Hades" anyway.

* * *

For our science exam, Mrs. Tesla told us that we had to mix chemicals until we succeeded in making something explode, and Tyson was my lab partner.

Thalia was with Corey Bailer and I saw her give me the "shoot me" look when Corey started whimpering at fact of blowing something up. Corey was similar to Tyson, but he got scared of regular stuff, unlike Tyson. He wasn't a big fan of stuff that blew up. Trust me, I got him as a lab partner once and he gave me a ten minute speech on why he was afraid of baking soda. Then he gave another five minute speech on why he was afraid of vinegar. The worst part about it was that we were dissecting frogs. It was a completely pointless ramble.

Anyway, back to Tyson. His hands were way too big for the tiny vials we were supposed to use. He accidentally knocked a tray of chemicals off the counter and made an orange mushroom cloud in the trashcan.

After Mrs. Tesla evacuated the lab and called the hazardous waste removal squad, she praised Tyson and me for being natural chemists. We were the first ones who'd ever aced her exam in under thirty seconds.

Thalia smiled and came up to me after Mrs. Tesla praised me and Tyson. "Good job, Percy. You aced a test for the very first time in your life."

"Oh, shut up Pinecone Face."

She scowled, stuck her index finger and middle finger from her right hand into my gut, and zapped me. "Don't call me Pinecone Face. It's a terrible nickname."

"Whatever," I shrugged. "At least it does its job. It annoys the _hell_ out of you."

"We'll see how annoyed you can get when we get older," she smiled sweetly. "Then, I will do things that will scar you forever. Physically _and_ mentally."

I held my ground and tried to look unfazed, but in truth, Thalia could make me feel pain for days. She had done that when she electrocuted my soft spot for four days straight, not continuously but at least once a day.

The rest of science class passed quickly and then it was last block: PE.

I went over to my school locker to put away my backpack before I went to the boys' locker room to change for PE. Tyson and Thalia were the lockers on either side of me so my locker wasn't the _worst_ spot in the entire school. The only problem with that was that Sloan was right across the hall from me so any time I was near my locker and Sloan could see me, he would harass me.

I just shut my locker door closed when I heard a girl's voice whisper, "Percy!"

An eerie chill tickled my spine and I turned around. But nobody was there. I scanned around the area just in case someone _was_ actually calling me, but nothing was abnormal. No one looked at me.

Then the thought occurred to me. Was this the voice that Luke heard earlier today? Now that I thought about it, the voice did sound very familiar. Who could it have been?

Before I could ponder on the voice some more, a crowd of kids rushed for the gym, carrying Tyson, Thalia and me along with them. Like rumored around the school, our coach had promised the seventh and eighth graders (I didn't know why we were together) a free-for-all dodgeball game, and Matt Sloan had promised to kill me.

The gym uniform at Meriwether is sky blue shorts and tie-dyed T-shirts. Fortunately, we did most of our athletic stuff inside, so we didn't have to jog through Tribeca looking like a bunch of boot-camp hippie children.

Outside the locker rooms, Thalia told me that she was going to wait just outside the boys' locker room for me. It wasn't because she was a faster changer, but just the fact that she tended to be the first to exit the locker rooms.

I changed as quickly as I could in the locker room because I didn't want to deal with Sloan. I was about to leave and beat Thalia to the gym when Tyson called, "Percy?"

He hadn't changed yet. He was standing by the weight room door, clutching his gym clothes. "Will you...uh..."

"Oh. Yeah." I tried not to sound aggravated about it. "Yeah, sure, man."

Tyson ducked inside the weight room. I stood guard outside the door while he changed. I felt kind of awkward doing this, but he asked me to most days. I think it's because he's completely hairy and he's got weird scars on his back that I've never had the courage to ask him about.

Anyway, I'd learned the hard way that if people teased Tyson while he was dressing out, he'd get upset and start ripping the doors off lockers.

When we got out of the locker room, like she promised, Thalia was outside waiting for us. She looked almost as aggravated as I was. I guess it was because she hated bright colors.

"Hate the uniform?" I asked.

"Now you ask me," she said sarcastically. "You could've asked, I don't know, six months ago."

"_Di immortales_," I said. "I was just asking."

She just shook her head and began to walk forward. Just then, the boys' locker room door swung open again and Luke stepped through. He stood in a pose that made him look like some sort of superhero. His bronze necklace shined in the lights of the gym. All in all, if he could fly, I would've called him a blonde Superman.

"Luke?" asked Sloan who was baffled. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought I could join," he shrugged. "Besides, it's not like I'm missing anything important. It's just doing some math problems. Dodgeball is way more fun. Isn't that right, Coach Nunley?"

Coach Nunley was sitting at his little desk reading _Sports Illustrated._ Nunley was about a million years old, with bifocals and no teeth and a greasy wave of gray hair. He reminded me of the Oracle at Camp Half-Blood—which was a shriveled-up mummy—except Coach Nunley moved a lot less and he never billowed green smoke.

Well, at least not that I'd observed.

"Uh-huh," he muttered absentmindedly.

Then Matt Sloan piped up, "Coach, can I be captain?"

"Eh?" Coach Nunley looked up from his magazine. "Yeah," he mumbled. "Mm-hmm."

Sloan grinned and took charge of the picking. He made me the other team's captain, which was pretty much the usual because most of the other kids on my side, except for Thalia and Tyson, were wimpy geeks and nerds. I really hated the social systems of schools.

Of course, Sloan chose his best friends first. That actually worked out in my favor because I chose Luke first, which made Sloan a little angry. Normally, me, Tyson, Luke and Thalia together would have made an undefeatable dodgeball team, but I still had second doubts.

Along with all of the jocks and popular kids, the visitors joined Sloan's team. It would've been all fine, but they were almost as tall and strong-looking as Tyson, and there were six of them.

Matt Sloan spilled a cage full of balls in the middle of the gym.

"Scared," Tyson mumbled. "Smell funny."

I looked at him. "What smells funny?" Because I didn't figure he was talking about himself.

"Them." Tyson pointed at Sloan's new friends. "Smell funny."

The visitors were cracking their knuckles, eyeing us like it was slaughter time. I couldn't help wondering where they were from. Someplace where they fed kids raw meat and beat them with sticks.

Sloan blew the coach's whistle and the game began. Sloan's team ran for the center line. On my side, Raj Mandali yelled something in Urdu, probably "I have to go potty!" and ran for the exit. Corey Bailer tried to crawl behind the wall mat and hide. The rest of my team did their best to cower in fear and not look like targets.

However, Luke, Thalia, Tyson and I stood right in the front line ready to get hit by balls.

"Guys," I said. "Let's g—"

A ball slammed into my gut. I sat down hard in the middle of the gym floor. The other team exploded in laughter.

My eyesight was fuzzy. I felt like I'd just gotten the Heimlich maneuver from a gorilla. I couldn't believe anybody could throw that hard.

Tyson yelled, "Percy, duck!"

I rolled as another dodgeball whistled past my ear at the speed of sound.

_Whooom!_

It hit the wall mat, and Corey Bailer yelped.

"Hey!" I yelled at Sloan's team. "You could kill somebody!"

The visitor named Joe Bob grinned at me evilly. Somehow, he looked a lot bigger now...even taller than Tyson. His biceps bulged beneath his T-shirt. "I hope so, Perseus Jackson! I hope so!"

The way he said my name sent a chill down my back. Nobody called me Perseus except those who knew my true identity. Friends...and enemies.

What had Tyson said?_ They smell funny._

Monsters.

"_Di immortales!_" exclaimed Luke. "Laistrygonians!"

"What the Hades are they doing here?" asked Thalia.

"Isn't it obvious?" I said. "They're here to kill us. Protect Tyson. I'll distract them."

All around Matt Sloan, the visitors were growing in size. They were no longer kids. They were eight-foot-tall giants with wild eyes, pointy teeth, and hairy arms tattooed with snakes and hula women and Valentine hearts.

Matt Sloan dropped his ball. "Whoa! You're not from Detroit! Who..."

The other kids on his team started screaming and backing toward the exit, but the giant named Marrow Sucker threw a ball with deadly accuracy. It streaked past Raj Mandali just as he was about to leave and hit the door, slamming it shut like magic. Raj and some of the other kids banged on it desperately but it wouldn't budge.

I stepped forward and snarled, "Let them go!"

The one called Joe Bob growled at me. He had a tattoo on his biceps that said_: JB luvs Babycakes. _"And lose our tasty morsels? No, Son of the Sea God. We Laistrygonians aren't just playing for your death. We want lunch!"

He waved his hand and a new batch of dodgeballs appeared on the center line—but these balls weren't made of red rubber. They were bronze, the size of cannon balls, perforated like rifle balls with fire bubbling out the holes. They must've been searing hot, but the giants picked them up with their bare hands.

"Percy!" Luke yelled. "Stand down! You don't have a weapon."

When he said that, I reached for my pen to prove him wrong before I realized something. I was wearing gym shorts and my sword didn't have pockets. That meant that Riptide was in the locker room, tucked into my jeans pocket.

Reluctantly, I pulled back. Suddenly, a rubber ball flew past my head, nowhere near as fast as the large bronze balls. I looked over at Sloan who was yelling insults at me.

I looked to Thalia and Luke. I saw that Thalia had her charm bracelet on and Luke had his necklace. "You two take care of the giants. I'll take care of that annoying little son of a b—"

"Percy!" I heard Tyson yell again. I was too slow to react and I thought that I was going to be flattened like a pancake. But I didn't feel anything. When I opened my eyes, I saw Tyson standing in front of me with two flaming bronze balls in his hands.

I watched, amazed, as Tyson sent them hurtling back at the surprised attackers. He screamed, "BAAAAAD!" as the metal spheres exploded against their chests.

The giants disintegrated in twin columns of flame—a sure sign they were monsters, all right. Monsters don't die. They just dissipate into smoke and dust, which saves heroes a lot of trouble cleaning up after a fight.

Then Tyson punched forward and before I knew it, a red rubber ball was now bouncing around the room like crazy. I turned back to Thalia and Luke. "Protect Tyson!" Then I ran toward Sloan.

He was grinning crazily at me, seemingly unfazed by the monsters to his right. He cracked his knuckles like he was going to enjoy beating the pulp out of me. As soon as I sprinted within distance, he struck forward. In that split second, I caught his hand in midair and grinned at his surprised look.

"Surprised, Sloan?" I asked and delivered a punch to his gut. Wanting to fight the Laistrygonians, I quickly knocked Sloan out with a quick jab to the side of his head. He was knocked out cold.

I turned back to the fight and saw Thalia and Luke fighting together, Luke on offense and Thalia on defense.

A fiery ball nearly decapitated Thalia, but Tyson pushed her out of the way as quick as a speeding bullet. The ball ended up slamming into the wall, making a huge hole in the wall and a large circle of fire around it. Kids were still running around screaming their heads off.

"Coach!" I yelled as I jumped back into the fray.

Nunley looked up sleepily, but if he saw anything abnormal about the dodgeball game, he didn't let on. That's the problem with mortals. A magical force called the Mist obscures the true appearance of monsters and gods from their vision, so mortals tend to see only what they can understand. Maybe the coach saw a few eighth graders pounding the younger kids like usual. Maybe the other kids saw Matt Sloan's thugs getting ready to toss Molotov cocktails around. (It wouldn't have been the first time.) At any rate, I was pretty sure nobody else realized we were dealing with genuine man-eating bloodthirsty monsters.

"Yeah. Mm-hmm," Coach muttered. "Play nice."

And he went back to his magazine.

The giant named Skull Eater threw his ball. I dove aside as the fiery bronze comet sailed past my shoulder.

"Corey!" I screamed.

Tyson pulled him out from behind the exercise mat just as the ball exploded against it, blasting the mat to smoking shreds.

"Run!" I told my teammates. "The other exit!"

They ran for the locker room, but with another wave of Joe Bob's hand, that door also slammed shut.

"No one leaves unless you're out!" Joe Bob roared. "And you're not out until we eat you!"

He launched his own fireball. My teammates scattered as it blasted a crater in the gym floor.

Thalia and Luke had finally killed the third of the six giants. They moved on to Skull Eater. Meanwhile, Tyson was helping keep the kids safe. I didn't know how he did it, but he continued to grab and snatch the fiery balls out of midair and send them hurtling back towards their owners. But by now, the giants learned their lesson and dodged their own metal balls as they flew back at them at a zillion miles an hour.

Coach Nunley still wasn't seeing anything. He tapped his hearing aid like the explosions were giving him interference, but he kept his eyes on his magazine.

Surely the whole school could hear the noise. The headmaster, the police, somebody would come help us.

"Victory will be ours!" roared Joe Bob the Cannibal. "We will feast on your bones!"

"You are taking this dodgeball game _way_ too seriously!" I yelled at him.

He just roared and hefted another ball. The giant that wasn't Skull Eater followed his lead. Thalia and Luke were too busy and too far away to help me. The only help I had was Tyson, who I could see in my peripheral vision. I couldn't rely on him though. By now, his hands had to have been badly scorched.

Then I got a crazy idea.

I ran toward the locker room.

"Move!" I told my teammates. "Away from the door."

There were explosions behind me. Luke stabbed Skull Eater in the chest and Skull Eater the Cannibal blew up into dust.

That left two giants still standing.

But then, in front of Luke and Thalia, a fiery ball exploded and they somersaulted in the air before landing on the hardwood of the gym nastily. They stayed down, though still conscious.

Then a ball hurtled straight at me. I forced myself to wait—one Mississippi, two Mississippi—then dove aside as the fiery sphere demolished the locker room door.

Now, I figured that the built-up gas in most boys' locker rooms was enough to cause an explosion, so I wasn't surprised when the flaming dodgeball ignited a huge _WHOOOOOOOM!_

The wall blew apart. Locker doors, socks, athletic supporters, and other various nasty personal belongings rained all over the gym.

I turned just in time to see Tyson punch the last remaining giant in the face. It crumpled. But the last giant, Joe Bob, had wisely held on to his own ball, waiting for an opportunity. He threw just as Tyson was turning to face him.

"No!" I yelled.

The ball caught Tyson square in the chest. He slid the length of the court and slammed into the back wall, which cracked and partially crumbled on top of him, making a hole right onto Church Street. I didn't see how Tyson could still be alive, but he only looked dazed. The bronze ball was smoking at his feet. Tyson tried to pick it up, but he fell back, stunned, into a pile of cinder blocks.

"Well!" Joe Bob gloated. "I'm the last one standing! I'll have enough meat to bring Babycakes a doggie bag!"

He picked up another ball and aimed it at Tyson.

"Stop!" I yelled. "It's me you want!"

The giant grinned. "You wish to die first, young hero?"

I had to do something. Riptide had to be around here somewhere.

Then I spotted my jeans in a smoking heap of clothes right by the giant's feet. If I could only get there...I knew it was hopeless, but I charged.

The giant laughed. "My lunch approaches." He raised his arm to throw. I braced myself to die.

Suddenly the giant's body went rigid. His expression changed from gloating to surprise. Right where his belly button should've been, his T-shirt ripped open and he grew something like a horn—no, not a horn—the glowing tip of a blade.

The ball dropped out of his hand. The monster stared down at the knife that had just run him through from behind.

He muttered, "Ow," and burst into a cloud of green flame, which I figured was going to make Babycakes pretty upset.

Standing in the smoke was my friend Annabeth. Her face was grimy and scratched. She had a ragged backpack slung over her shoulder, her baseball cap tucked in her pocket, a bronze knife in her hand, and a wild look in her storm-gray eyes, like she'd just been chased a thousand miles by ghosts.

I finally noticed that Sloan had woken up and come to his senses. He blinked at Annabeth, as if he dimly recognized her from my notebook picture. "That's the girl...That's the girl—"

Annabeth punched him in the nose.

"And you," she told him, "lay off my friends."

The gym was in flames. Kids were still running around screaming. I heard sirens wailing and a garbled voice over the intercom. Through the glass windows of the exit doors, I could see the headmaster, Mr. Bonsai, wrestling with the lock, a crowd of teachers piling up behind him.

"Annabeth..." I stammered. "How did you...how long have you..."

"I tried to talk to Luke first." She sheathed her bronze knife. "I've been trying to find a good time to talk to you guys, but when I try to talk to you or Thalia, the big guy is with you. Then, when I tried talking to Luke"—she stiffened a little—"he was always surrounded by girls."

I nodded, not really catching the slight change in her tone of voice.

"Annabeth!" Luke called.

We turned to see a staggering Luke and a stumbling Thalia walking toward us. Annabeth waved tiredly, "Hey, Luke. Hey, Thalia."

"What are you doing here?" panted Thalia.

"I've been trying to talk to you guys all day," Annabeth explained again.

"So _you_ were the voice," realized Luke.

Annabeth nodded.

"Where the Hades were you when you called me?" he said.

"My thirteenth birthday a couple months ago," she explained. "I got a gift from Athena. She gave me this New York Yankees cap that can turn me invisible."

"There!" a woman screamed. The doors burst open and the adults came pouring in.

"Meet me outside," said Annabeth quickly. She looked over at Tyson who was still sitting against the wall, dazed. For a second, she hesitated. Then she blinked as if she just noticed something about him. Then her face turned to one of distaste. "And him. You'd better bring him."

"_What?_"

"No time," she said. "Hurry!"

She put on her Yankees baseball cap, which was her new magic gift from her mom, and instantly vanished.

That left me standing with Thalia and Luke in the middle of the burning gymnasium when the headmaster came charging in with half the faculty and a couple of police officers.  
"Percy Jackson? Luke Castellan? Thalia Grace?" Mr. Bonsai said. "What...how ..."

Over by the broken wall, Tyson groaned and stood up from the pile of cinder blocks. "Head hurts."

Matt Sloan was coming around, too. He focused on me with a look of terror. "Percy did it, Mr. Bonsai! He set the whole building on fire. Coach Nunley will tell you! He saw it all!"

Coach Nunley had been dutifully reading his magazine, but just my luck—he chose that moment to look up when Sloan said his name. "Eh? Yeah. Mm-hmm."

The other adults turned toward me. I knew they would never believe me, even if I could tell them the truth.

I grabbed Riptide out of my ruined jeans, told Tyson, Thalia and Luke, "Come on!" and jumped through the gaping hole in the side of the building.

* * *

**Hey everyone,**

**This is part two of experiment one. It's like a science experiment except with writing. I kind of wish I could work on my poetry so that I can have Apollo say them. Well, then again, Apollo's poetry is pretty bad... Anyway, thanks for all of your support and I hope that you continue to support this story no matter how bad it may be. :)**

**Question of the Chapter: Which god would you most be like? This includes minor gods and non-Olympian Council gods, like Hades and Hestia.****  
**

**I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	4. I Get a New Brother

**Hey everyone,**

**I realized, after reading this chapter to revise, that this story is going to be much different than my first story. My first story was full of action in every chapter. Each chapter brought some interesting facts and cool things to your attention; however, in reading this chapter, and the other three, I have realized that this story is going to be much repetitive of the real series until I actually get to some interesting chapters. Why am I not expanding this story so that it fits under the excitement of my previous story? Well, for one, I don't want to make this longer than it has to be and second, I feel that keeping the short chapters that Rick Riordan created the _Sea of Monsters_ out of fits this story best. I am sorry if this is disappointing to my viewers and followers, but that is the way that I am going to keep it.**

**Thanks for those who reviewed in the previous chapter:  
**ROC95, Mundster Madman, Scaket, ShotgunWilly, currymonsta1512, Justrockzyxxx, redlox2, R3D N3BuLOS17Y, The Helios Spirit, Sorry that username is taken, May Salome Love, TheAvidReader (Guest), yanksrock615, LyingTruth123, Killijimaru (formerly Perhea II), Phoenix1592, Darkth Shadow & Guest.

**With best regards,  
****SharkAttack719**

* * *

**Περσεύς 3**

**I Get a New Brother**

Annabeth was waiting for us in an alley down Church Street. She pulled me off the sidewalk just as a fire truck screamed past, heading for Meriwether Prep.

"Where'd you find _him_?" she demanded, pointing at Tyson.

Normally, I'd be a little glad to see Annabeth. I'd also be a little worried that she was bruised and cut in a lot of places. Annabeth was younger than me, even if only by half a year, and like Luke and Thalia treated her, I saw her as a younger sister. Also, we'd made our peace last summer, despite the fact that our parents didn't get along much.

But we'd just been attacked by cannibal giants, Tyson had saved our lives a few times, and all Annabeth could do was glare at him like _he_ was the problem.

"He's our friend," Luke told her.

"Really?" she looked at him surprised. "He's your friend?"

"Annabeth," Thalia chastised, "stop being so rude. What's your problem?"

"Is he homeless?" Annabeth asked, changing the topic.

"What does that have to do with anything?" I put in. "He can hear you, you know. Why don't you ask him?"

She looked surprised. "He can talk?"

I scowled at Annabeth. Usually, she was actually somewhat nice, but now she was being cruel, rude and disrespectful. What had gotten into her? I looked over at Luke and Thalia who were both looking at Annabeth weirdly, trying to decipher why she wasn't being her normal self.

"I talk," Tyson admitted. "You are pretty."

"Ah! Gross!" Annabeth stepped away from him.

I couldn't believe she was being so rude. I examined Tyson's hands, which I was sure must've been badly scorched by the flaming dodgeballs, but they looked fine—grimy and scarred, with dirty fingernails the size of potato chips—but they always looked like that. "Tyson," I said in disbelief. "You hands aren't even burned."

Thalia gasped. She turned to Luke. "Flaming dodgeballs. Not burned. Annabeth's weird behavior. Tyson's a...he..."

I turned to the two, confused. Luke's face paled. "But he's so nice, he can't..."

Annabeth snorted. "I'm surprised the Laistrygonians had the guts to attack you guys with him around. Even if there were three of you."

Tyson seemed fascinated by Annabeth's blonde hair. He tried to touch it, but she smacked his hand away.

"Laistrygonians," I repeated. Now that I wasn't fighting them, the facts that I knew about the cannibals started popping in my head like popping popcorn. "They lived in the far north. Odysseus ran into them, didn't he? Wait, New York isn't in the far north."

Annabeth nodded. "I know. I've never seen them as far south as New York before. I guess they must've really wanted to kill you guys."

"How far north did they live?" I asked. "Just wanting to know."

Annabeth thought about it for a moment. "They'd be Canadians," she decided. "Now come on, we have to get out of here."

"The police'll be after us."

"That's the least of our problems," she said. "Have you been having the dreams?"

Luke and Thalia, who had been talking in their own little private group, turned back to Annabeth. Thalia paled a little more. "You've been having the dreams too? The dreams...about Grover?"

Annabeth's face turned pale. "Grover? No, what about Grover?"

Thalia re-explained her dream. "Why? What were _you_ dreaming about?"

Annabeth's eyes looked stormy, like her mind was racing a million miles an hour.

Before she could say a word, I answered the question for her. Turning to Thalia, fear in my eyes, I said, "Camp. Big trouble at camp."

Annabeth looked surprised for the third time today. "How did you know?"

"I had the same dream," I explained.

Luke's face darkened. "Wait, what dream did you two share? You still haven't told us what you dreamt about."

Annabeth's wild eyes flickered from side to side. She walked up to the sidewalk and peeked around the sides of the buildings surrounding us. After checking both sides, she turned back around and looked at Luke. "We have to get to camp now. All I know is that something is wrong with camp. Monsters have been chasing me all the way from Virginia, trying to stop me. Have you had a lot of attacks?"

I shook my head. "None all year...until today."

"None? But how..." Her eyes drifted to Tyson. "Oh."

"What do you mean, 'oh'?"

Luke put a hand on my shoulder and looked at Tyson warily, as if someone suddenly told him of Tyson's past and it was filled with horrible things. Either that, or he was suddenly disgusted by Tyson. I really didn't get why they were appalled by Tyson. He wasn't such a bad guy. Besides, Luke and Thalia had spent the entire school year around Tyson.

"Look, Percy," he started. "You're not going to believe this, but—"

Tyson suddenly raised his hand like he was still in class. "Canadians in the gym called Percy something...Son of the Sea God?"

Luke took his hand off of my shoulder and bit his lip like he needed to tell me what was wrong and Tyson was ruining his chances of telling me.

I didn't know how I could explain, but I figured Tyson deserved the truth after almost getting killed.

"Big guy," I said, "you ever heard those old stories about the Greek gods? Like Zeus, Poseidon, Athena—"

"Yes," Tyson said.

"Well...those gods are still alive. They kind of follow Western Civilization around, living in the strongest countries, so like now they're in the U.S. And sometimes they have kids with mortals. Kids called half-bloods."

"Yes," Tyson said, like he was still waiting for me to get to the point.

"Uh, well, Annabeth, Thalia, Luke and I are half-bloods," I said. "We're like...heroes-in-training. And whenever monsters pick up our scent, they attack us. That's what those giants were in the gym. Monsters."

"Yes."

I stared at him. He didn't seem surprised or confused by what I was telling him, which surprised and confused me.

"So...you believe me?"

"Of course he does!" exclaimed Thalia.

I turned toward her, watching as Luke, Thalia and Annabeth waited impatiently, as if waiting for me to realize something. Thalia and Annabeth both gave me pointed looks while Luke was still staring at Tyson, deciding if he was good or not.

When I turned back to Tyson, he was nodding. "But you are...Son of the Sea God?"

"Yeah," I admitted. "My dad is Poseidon."

Tyson frowned. _Now_ he looked confused. "But then..."

A siren wailed. A police car raced past our alley.

"We don't have time for this," Annabeth interrupted. "We'll talk in the taxi."

"A taxi all the way to camp?" I said. "You know how much money—"

"Trust me."

I hesitated. "What about Tyson?"

I imagined escorting my giant friend into Camp Half-Blood. If he freaked out on a regular playground with regular bullies, how would he act at a training camp for demigods? On the other hand, the cops would be looking for us.

"We can't just leave him," I decided. "He'll be in trouble, too."

"Yeah." Annabeth looked grim. "We definitely need to take him. Now come on."

I didn't like the way she said that, as if Tyson were a big disease we needed to get to the hospital, but I followed her down the alley. Together the five of us sneaked through the side streets of downtown while a huge column of smoke billowed up behind us from my school gymnasium.

"Here." Annabeth stopped us on the corner of Thomas and Trimble. She fished around in her backpack. "I hope I have one left."

She looked even worse than I'd realized at first.

Her chin was cut. Twigs and grass were tangled in her ponytail, as if she'd slept several nights in the open. The slashes on the hems of her jeans looked suspiciously like claw marks.

"What are you looking for?" I asked.

All around us, sirens wailed. I figured it wouldn't be long before more cops cruised by, looking for juvenile delinquent gym-bombers. No doubt Matt Sloan had given them a statement by now. He'd probably twisted the story around so that Thalia, Luke, Tyson and I were the bloodthirsty cannibals.

"Found one. Thank the gods." Annabeth pulled out a gold coin that I recognized as a drachma, the currency of Mount Olympus. It had Zeus's likeness stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other.

"Annabeth," I said, "New York taxi drivers won't take that."

Thalia's eyes widened. "Oh, no. Not them. How are we going to fit five—"

"_Stêthi_," she shouted in Ancient Greek. _"Ô hárma diabolês!"_

As usual, the moment she spoke in the language of Olympus, I somehow understood it. She'd said: _Stop, Chariot of Damnation!_

That, along with Thalia's doubt, didn't exactly make me feel real excited about whatever her plan was.

She threw her coin into the street, but instead of clattering on the asphalt, the drachma sank right through and disappeared.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then, just where the coin had fallen, the asphalt darkened. It melted into a rectangular pool about the size of a parking space—bubbling red liquid like blood. Then a car erupted from the ooze.

It was a taxi, all right, but unlike every other taxi in New York, it wasn't yellow. It was smoky gray. I mean it looked like it was _woven _out of smoke, like you could walk right through it. There were words printed on the door—something like GYAR SSIRES—but my dyslexia made it hard for me to decipher what it said.

The passenger window rolled down, and an old woman stuck her head out. She had a mop of grizzled hair covering her eyes, and she spoke in a weird mumbling way, like she'd just had a shot of Novocain.

"Passage? Passage?"

"Five to Camp Half-Blood," Annabeth said. She opened the cab's back door and waved at me to get in, like this was all completely normal.

"Ach!" the old woman screeched. "We don't take _his _kind!"

She pointed a bony finger at Tyson.

What was it? Pick-on-Big-and-Ugly-Kids Day?

"You know what?" I said. "It'll just be three to Camp Half-Blood. Tyson and I won't go."

"Better!" called the old lady. "Just the three of you—daughter of Zeus in company as well—to Camp Half-Blood it is."

"Wait, Percy!" said Annabeth. "How are you going to get to camp?"

I winked at her and said, "I have my ways."

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" she looked genuinely worried. At that fact, I frowned. Why would she be worried for me? Then she frowned. "Then again, he _is_ the son of...well, okay Percy. Good luck."

She gave me a quick one-armed hug and hopped inside the cab. Thalia looked a little bit leery of the cab, but nevertheless, climbed into the middle seat of the cab after giving me a fist bump. Luke gave me a quick salute before crawling in last. Then the door slammed shut and the cab took off like a speeding bullet.

Tyson was still staring at me in disbelief. He looked like he had just discovered something amazing or shocking.

Instead of asking what was wrong, I just closed my eyes and called out randomly into the air—in my head, of course—for the transportation of two to Camp Half-Blood.

Now, most people must be wondering why I was randomly sending telepathic communications into the open air where there would be the least amount of possible modes of transportation for a thirteen year old boy and his best friend, the Abominable Snowman (without the snow). Well, for one, there were actually creatures in the air that could help us, if they heard my cry for help.

I wasn't too worried about exposing pegasi to Tyson because he'd already been told about the Greek world.

Police sirens and fire engines wailed in the distance, the smoke starting to die off and disappear from view. I hadn't seen if Thalia had taken her mace canister—also known as her spear—but if she did leave it, I doubted that Zeus wouldn't find the opportunity to win back the favor of his daughter and return her weapon to him.

If he didn't have that idea, he should listen to me right now. It would take a lot to win the favor back from Thalia, but baby steps did it. I may hate the guts of the King of the Gods, but I would help him.

"Who are you waiting for?" asked Tyson.

I turned to my big friend. He was still giving me a look of wonder, which was beginning to really creep me out. He kind of looked at me like I was the world's largest peanut butter sandwich. And Tyson _really_ loves peanut butter sandwiches.

"You know Pegasus from the old stories?"

He nodded.

"Well, he had a bunch of kids and it passed down through generations, like humans...like you, and—"

"I'm not a human," said Tyson.

I looked at him dumbfounded. Was Tyson not a human? Was he something else all along? Was he like some sort of guardian angel with an IQ lower than mine?

"Anyway," I said, drawing the word out, "Pegasus had a lot of kids who had lots of kids and now there are hundreds of pegasi flying out in the world. And yes, they were all named after the very first one."

"Chicken ponies? They're coming to save us?"

I laughed at Tyson's nickname for the pegasi. "Yes," I joked. "_Chicken ponies_ are coming to save us."

Tyson smiled a big-toothed grin from ear to ear and jumped up and down like a little boy who just got a lollipop. "Yay! Chicken ponies come save us! Chicken ponies!"

I laughed a little more at Tyson's childish behavior, wanting to get out all of my laughter before preparing myself for the bad things that would happen at camp. That single thought darkened my mood.

I stopped laughing and immediately became sullen. Tyson seemed to notice this.

"What is wrong, Percy?" he asked.

I looked up at the big guy. Although he wasn't a half-blood—that I could tell for sure—I felt that I could vent off my thoughts to Tyson. There was some feeling there telling me that Tyson knew much more than he let on, and that he wasn't as clueless as you'd think he'd be.

"Well, big guy, there's this camp for half-bloods. It's called Camp Half-Blood. It's where heroes train to fight monsters and learn essential things needed to be able to live in the world of Greek monsters," I explained. "We learn sword fighting, forging, riding pegasi, canoeing and most important of all, arts and crafts."

Tyson nodded. He looked up into the sky and pointed. "Look! Chicken ponies!"

I turned to where he was pointing and saw two flying horses beating their wings and soaring down from the sky. They were both gray, like the usual pegasus. They stopped in front of me and bowed.

_My lord_, they said in sync.

"Hey guys," I greeted.

"Hi, chicken ponies!" cried Tyson cheerfully.

The pegasi seemed to just notice him and they reared back. Skittishly, they backed away from us. I frowned, "What's wrong?"

_Monster!_ they cried. _Monster! Horse-eater!_

I looked over at Tyson who looked a little disappointed at the retreating "chicken ponies."

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "Tyson isn't a monster."

_Monster!_ they wailed. One actually flew up into the air at least twenty feet away from us. _His eye! His eye!_

_Eye_? Didn't they mean _eyes_? I looked over at Tyson's face and for the first time, I looked up at Tyson's eyes. Then I had a revelation.

"Tyson," I said hoarsely. "You're a cyclops."

Right in the center of his forehead, Tyson had one calf-brown eye that was looking at the pegasi intently. I saw the beginnings of tears forming in his eye and I shook my head to knock myself out of my thoughts.

"Tyson!" I said, making him turn his attention to me. "You're a cyclops?"

Tyson nodded and gave me a smile, one big fat tear trickling down his face. "Yes, I am a cyclops. I am also your brother."

My brain exploded. "Say what?"

"My daddy is Poseidon, too!" he exclaimed. He suddenly looked a lot happier. "Percy is my big brother! We are brothers! Yay!"

My jaw was too busy hanging like a bungee cord to say anything. I really couldn't believe that Tyson was actually a cyclops and my little brother. Now I realized why he sounded so childish, yet was so big at the same time. Tyson was a cyclops, who were huge when adults. He was just a little child, seven or eight at the most.

He was also homeless. That caused me to think a little bit more. Why would my father just dump one of his children on the streets of Manhattan like that? Was he actually crueller than I thought?

I looked up at the pegasus who wasn't twenty feet in the air. "Just take us to camp. We'll discuss this later. Tyson's better than he seems."

_Are you sure, Lord Percy?_ he said.

I nodded and hopped onto the pegasus' back. "Tyson!" I called to my half-brother. "Get on the other pegasus. We need to get to camp now!"

A bad feeling was rising in my chest and I felt as though something bad was happening at camp right now. It was as if camp was about to be attacked by something terrible.

"Okay, brother!" called Tyson excitedly. He smiled and hopped on to the other pegasus, who had calmed down and flew down from being twenty feet in the air.

_He's so big_, complained the other pegasus.

"Well deal with it," I snapped. "We don't have the time. Camp's in trouble."

_Well, duh, we know that_, said my pegasus. _We live at the camp. The pretty girl, Silena, let us go free for a little bit to stretch our wings. Plus, we heard your call all the way from camp. You can be really loud when you're angry._

"How do you even hear me from camp?" I asked. "Last time I called on a pegasus, he said he was a free roamer who had never been to Camp Half-Blood. I forgot his name. I think it was Porkpie or something."

My pegasus whinnied and took off, his partner and Tyson not far behind. _I dunno why, lord. Maybe it's just because we can sense if you're calling us. It's like how you can sense the fact that a sword is gonna come at you and then you deflect the blade. By the way, you're an incredible fighter. Beat the crap out of that Ethan guy. He's a no-good, lying, deceiving, little, evil motherf_—

"Okay," I interrupted, "okay. I get it."

"_Whee!_" Tyson cheered from behind, his horse doing loop-de-loops to make him happy. "More, chicken pony! More!"

I shook my head while chuckling. Watching Tyson at ease still brightened my mood, no matter what the conditions. Instead of feeling downright depressed about camp, I felt angry and disconsolate about the poisoned tree of the heroes of the Demigod Civil War.

I wondered how Thalia, Luke and Annabeth were doing. I hoped they were doing alright in whatever taxi they were in. One of the main reasons why I decided that I wasn't going to go and squeeze in the taxi was because it didn't look all too promising. I mean, an old lady in a gray taxi that looked like it was made of smoke would make me think that the taxi ride would either be extremely slow...or as fast as hell.

I watched as the scenery of New York passed under us turning from Chinatown to Williamsburg. The buildings got shorter and smaller, and the tightly packed corners of Manhattan changed to the slightly open roads of Brooklyn. I looked up ahead and saw planes rising from JFK International Airport up into the clouds.

Normally, I would be a little worried about being so high in the sky, but considering my father was the original Pegasus' father, riding on pegasi was kind of like a neutral zone.

Thunder rumbled in the sky, and for the first time, I realized that there were thunderclouds rolling in. It was even worse for us because we were soaring up near the clouds. We could either go higher, above the clouds, or lower, where there was a higher chance that we could be spotted; however, being below the clouds would help me see Camp Half-Blood and whatever the danger was that I sensed.

"Lower!" I yelled and my pegasus obeyed. I took a quick look behind me and saw Tyson's pegasus follow mine.

My monster brother tried saying something over the increasing noise of thunder. His words were lost in the loud clap of thunder.

"Speak up, Tyson!" I called.

Tyson took a breath in and bellowed in a loud, clear voice, "Why is it stormy, Percy?"

I was a little surprised at the volume of his voice. Then again, he was a cyclops and they were known to be big and loud...at least in my book they were. Cyclopes were also supposed to _not_ be homeless. That got me thinking again.

Why was Tyson thrown on the streets? Was it because Poseidon didn't want him? Did my dad only show me affection because I was supposed to be some great hero who would fulfill some prophecy?

Oh, and for those of you who are wondering what I am talking about, I learned last summer that Thalia and I were a part of some prophecy to fulfill. Chiron had said that no camper knew the exact lines of the prophecy except for Ethan Nakamura who had been told as he was the "most trustworthy" and "helpful" camper. He was told so that he could help train the hero or heroine to fight in the great battle and make the decision that would ultimately destroy or save Olympus. It was pretty obvious he was told _after_ my identity had been exposed to the gods because before that, nobody knew any child of the Big Three except for Zeus, Poseidon and probably Hera.

"Percy?" Tyson called again. "Why is it stormy?"

"Zeus!" I answered. "He's probably mad."

Suddenly, a vision flashed in my eyes. I hadn't had one of these in a _long_ time.

It was Olympus. That I could tell.

The room was the throne room, ten empty thrones except for the head throne on the right and the one to its immediate right. In both thrones sat a man and a woman, clearly husband and wife. The man was in a dark pin-striped suit, his black beard neatly trimmed, and his eyes sparking with energy. Next to him sat a beautiful woman with silver hair braided over one shoulder and a dress that shimmered colors like peacock feathers.

Both of them wore steely expressions, as if they'd just had a fight.

I knew who those two were very well. Zeus and Hera, King and Queen of the Gods. They both disliked me because I had been born into their world, though for different reasons. Zeus, because he was threatened by what decision I could make when the time of the prophecy comes, and Hera, because she was the Goddess of Marriage and cheating on your wives was bad in her opinion.

It wasn't to say I didn't agree with her. It was just that being married to someone for eternity must be boring.

Anyway, the two were red in the face, like they'd just finished arguing.

Hera turned coldly to Zeus. "Why do you care so much?"

"She's my daughter," replied Zeus, just as cold and icy.

"With another woman," the Queen of the Gods snapped. "Even after millennia after millennia of faithfulness, you cheat on me once again with another _woman_ to produce another demon."

Zeus' eyes flared and thunder rumbled in the sky. "The tree that protects the camp is dying and you are complaining about something I had done years ago? So what if I went to the mortal school to pick up her spear for her. It's not like I'm helping her in a huge way. She won't even care."

"They why do you do it?" she hissed.

"It is a nice deed—"

"Nice deed? _Nice deed?_" Hera said, her voice raising as she continued speaking. "You would give your stupid little daughter her weapon back, but for our anniversary, you come back to me and say you cheated on me for a second time. To think that you'd done it with the same woman—"

"She's dead now!" the King of the Gods roared. "Happy?! She's dead. You're right. I never loved her. I only seeked for lust. It was because you never gave me any!"

"That automatically means you can find some _decent_-looking mortal and go screw her? For all I care, let the camp be destroyed. You're too proud to give them credit anyway," Hera hissed, her voice full of venom. "I will not tolerate your disrespect to me. If you really wanted to do it, you shouldn't have cheated on me a million times before. All you really want to do is go screw every woman on this planet. I wouldn't surprised if you had gone around and done every single woman on Gaea. You messed up. The gods have been pulled apart. You'll never win this war because you've distanced yourself from your most powerful allies. You killed Hades' children and you attempted to kill Poseidon's child. I despise them as much as you do, but you know very well what has happened to Hades ever since his children's murder. Kronos will overthrow you unless you can fix that!"

Then the vision dissolved and I found myself flying over Long Island, getting closer to camp.

"Percy!" Tyson called. "Are you alright?"

_Are you okay, Lord Percy_, said my pegasus.

I shook my head clear of what I had just seen. "Yeah!" I called out, rubbing my eyes. "I'm fine."

When I cleared my eyes and returned to flying normally with a horse pestering me about whether I was okay or not, I reflected on what Hera had said.

_Are the Gods truly better than the Titans?_ Kronos' old question rung in my head.

I didn't know why I had this vision. Was Kronos trying to manipulate me into thinking that the Titans would be better than the gods? Was he trying to make me switch sides? Then the contradictory question popped up. What if the gods were this bad, hiding it by allowing Western Civilization to flourish? Did the gods truly care about half-bloods just because they could do work for them?

Zeus had made a lot of mistakes over the course of millennia. Could the gods really do a better job than the Titans?

"Stop!" I said to myself out loud. "Kronos is just trying to manipulate you. Don't listen."

Then the air suddenly got a lot colder. Everything seemed to drain color for a second and the blood in my veins turned to ice.

Why? Ironically, it was because I saw bulls attacking Half-Blood Hill. And not just any bulls: the fire-breathing Colchis Bulls.

* * *

**Hey everyone,**

**This is part two of experiment one. It's like a science experiment except with writing. I kind of wish I could work on my poetry so that I can have Apollo say them. Well, then again, Apollo's poetry is pretty bad... Anyway, thanks for all of your support and I hope that you continue to support this story no matter how bad it may be. :)**

**Question of the Chapter: What is Blackjack's favorite nickname for Percy?****  
**

**I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	5. Fire-Breathing Bulls

**Thanks to those who reviewed:**

chronos the cookie thief, Blackcurse11, LightningThunder20, jacksonpotterridefan101, Guest, SonOfSeaGod, percyjason, ROC95, redlox2, Die hard fan (Guest), LyingTruth123, Phoenix1592, Justrockzyxxx, The awesome MATT, greenblue22, Don't Stop Beliving, E. E. Terrill, FaTaLClanWii, Will (Guest), the hotpocket hunter, Killijimaru & yanksrock615.

**Sorry if I got your username wrong.  
**SharkAttack719

* * *

**Περσεύς 4**

**Fire-Breathing Bulls**

Fear ran in my veins. I had killed two bulls last year—father and son—but they were both regular bulls, aside from the fact that one couldn't be killed with regular steel and one was a half-man.

These two beasts that were attacking camp's borders both breathed fire and looked like they were as hot as the inside of an oven.

I looked down toward the first bull where a bulky camp guard was directing the other guards into a phalanx formation to fight off the fiery machine.

The second bull was being tamed by Thalia and Luke. I couldn't see Annabeth from where I was but distant shouts told me she was invisible, trying to distract the bulls from the visible attackers. I couldn't help but notice that Luke and Thalia worked really well together. It was as if they really knew each other well.

A strange feeling bubbled in my stomach but it didn't feel like it was directed at me. It was as if some extra sense in my body could, well, sense something about the two that someone wouldn't desire.

I shook the feeling away and asked my pegasus to dive down quickly.

"Fire!" yelled Tyson from somewhere behind me.

"I know, big guy!" I called back.

As we dove down at an increasingly faster rate, the wind started to gust quickly in my face. I squinted as the wind suddenly turned sharp, as if it were trying to slice my face open. Down at ground level, the shapes became larger but blurrier. I saw lightning arc out from a black and bronze shape. I saw the whirling blade of the blurry figure next to it. I saw a group of blurred figures barely holding off the other large red shape.

I blinked and everything refocused. I now saw the individuals fighting the Colchis Bulls. The camp guard who was ordering the other guards around was Clarisse La Rue, my enemy at camp—although I did appreciate her fighting skills which were phenomenal.

"Tyson!" I yelled in the sky. "Wait at the border until I need your help. I don't want you to get hurt anymore."

"But—"

"No! I'm responsible for you now. You're my brother. I want you to be safe, no matter how much damage you can take."

I turned back and saw a reluctant nod come up from my half-brother.

I nodded back and jumped off. It was sudden and by instinct, but I landed on the ground with a tuck and roll, immediately holding my pen out and uncapping it. I reached for my left pocket where I usually kept my knife, but I remembered that I had left them in my jeans and they were probably gone by now.

I cursed, realizing that I probably had a zero chance of finding that knife again.

Nevertheless, I charged up the hill toward the bulls. I looked at Luke and Thalia, and then at Clarisse and her friends. I didn't know which side needed more help but I trusted Thalia and Luke more than Clarisse to handle themselves.

"La Rue!" I heard an invisible person shout. It was definitely Annabeth's voice.

Clarisse, who had one end of her spear lodged into the shoulder of the bull she and her friends were fighting, was jabbing at the bull with a broken wooden shaft. She, like all the guards, had full battle armor on and kept their distance.

It wasn't actually that worrying about the heroes getting their bronze-plated asses whipped. It wasn't confusing why Thalia had her spear back. It wasn't horrifying about the fact that there were monsters trying to attack Camp Half-Blood.

The most worrying part about all of this was that the bulls were able to cross the camp's boundaries easily. The only real struggle they had was the fact that there was a minor restriction to get across the border.

As I ran up the hill, one of the bulls—the one Luke and Thalia were facing—charged at it, steamrolling up the hill. As it passed the middle of the hill, where the invisible boundary line should've kept it out, it slowed down a little, as if it were struggling against a strong wind; but then it broke through and kept coming.

At the exact same time, Annabeth had just called Clarisse and startled her for a second. She looked around for the source of the voice and Bull Number One (which I was now calling the one that Clarisse was facing; the other one would be Bull Number Two) smashed into her shield, breaking the phalanx. Clarisse went flying backward and landed in a smoldering patch of grass.

The bull charged past her, but not before blasting the other heroes with its fiery breath. Their shields melted right off their arms. They dropped their weapons and ran as Bull Number Two closed in on Clarisse for the kill.

It didn't help that some of the border guards were already running around with their helmets on fire, but the bulls just had to mix themselves up.

"Take Bull Number One!" I yelled at Luke and Thalia. They looked surprised for a second but went over to take care of the first bull.

I quickly ran over to Clarisse, grabbed her by the straps, and dragged her aside, just as Bull Number Two freight-trained past. I gave it a good swipe with Riptide and cut a huge gash in its flank, but the monster just creaked and groaned and kept on going.

It hadn't touched me, but I could feel the heat of its metal skin. Its body temperature could've microwaved a frozen burrito.

"Let me go!" Clarisse pummeled my hand. "Let go Percy!"

I dropped her in a heap next to the pine tree and turned to face the bulls. We were on the inside slope of the hill now, the valley of Camp Half-Blood directly below us—the cabins, the training facilities, the Big House—all of it at risk if these bulls got past us.

Annabeth appeared out of thin air and shouted orders to the other heroes, telling them to spread out and keep the bulls distracted.

I felt someone grab me by the shoulder. I turned around to see a sneering Clarisse. She sniffed, "I don't like you, but you're a good fighter. C'mon."

Whatever else you could say about Clarisse, she was brave.

She was a big girl with cruel eyes like her father's. She looked like she was born to wear Greek battle armor, but I didn't see how even she could fight the bull one on one. Then again, she was Clarisse.

She started forward toward Bull Number Two. I realized she still had a broken stick for a weapon and I quickly scoured the ground for a suitable weapon. I found a spear that one of the border guards had dropped. I picked it up and brought it over to Clarisse.

As I handed it to her, I said, "I don't think you could beat up the bulls with your fists."

She gave a terse nod and grabbed it forcefully out of my hands. Then we stood next to each other as Bull Number Two circled around in a wide arc and came charging right back at us.

I tensed my legs, ready to leap over the bull like a frog and attack its backside. Clarisse kept a defensive position, holding her shield out forward and the spear over her shoulder, like a one man phalanx.

I wondered what would've happened to the world if Alexander the Great, though not a Greek, didn't die during his journey to conquer the known world.

Clarisse and I shared a look and nodded. Despite disliking each other heavily, we could work together on the battlefield. That was a different thing.

"Percy!" someone suddenly called. I turned around looking for the person who called me but instead, I saw a charging bull breathing death at my face.

Okay, it wasn't literal death and technically Bull Number One was only stampeding at me, not breathing fire a me, but it still hurt to be rammed by a bull...especially metal ones.

I flew backwards, just like Clarisse had done earlier. The only difference was that Clarisse was wearing full body armor, and I was wearing torn up hippie clothes. I would say that being me right now hurt _a lot_ more than being Clarisse back then. Plus, my shirt caught on fire.

I landed painfully on the ground, my shirt still burning. At first, I felt a little dizzy when I hit my head on the ground, but as soon as I noticed my burning shirt, I was back normal in a split second.

"Fire!" I yelped and immediately threw my shirt off, stomping on the fire to put it out. The end result of stomping on the shirt: a pile of cotton and ash.

I cursed again and looked down at my bare body. It was bruised on my right side from being rammed by the bull, and certainly not attractive looking, though it wasn't like I was trying to be attractive like those creepy Aphrodite guys. I mean, what kind of guy wears makeup?

I shook my head out of my thoughts and looked around for Riptide. I saw it lying on the ground a couple feet away. I grinned, scooped it up, and jumped right back into the fray.

Clarisse was handling Bull Number Two on her own like the brave girl she was. Annabeth was helping get campers organized and got some of the kids with fiery helmets to calm down and actually _throw_ the helmets off their heads so they wouldn't catch fire.

You'd think teenagers would be smarter these days with the Internet and whatnot, but _nooo_. Children and teenagers have just gotten worse. One of the stories of being on the run I had forgotten to tell the story of was a story about teenagers and parenthood.

You see, I'd seen this sixteen year old girl walking in a mall with a little baby in her hands. She was talking to it like it was her child or something. Then, I decided to sit down on one of those lounge chairs they had right in the middle of the mall walkway. Just a few seconds later, the sixteen year old girl sits down next to me.

I had looked over at the little baby and noticed that he (or she) had very similar physical qualities as the sixteen year old.

So then, I'd asked, "Is that your sister or brother?"

"No," the sixteen year old replied. "She's my daughter."

I swear that if I had been drinking any liquid at the time, I probably would've caused a flood in the mall. Okay, now that I'd seen more of the world (remind you I was nine), it didn't seem so weird now because that's what society was like now: doing the right things at the wrong time.

Sure, getting pregnant was a wonderful thing, but before you've even graduated high school?

Anyway, ignoring my ADHD and going back to the fight on Half-Blood Hill, I sprinted up from behind Bull Number Two and stabbed its rear, causing it to turn to me.

"I had it under control, Percy!" Clarisse yelled. "Come here beef teriyaki!"

In her eyes was the red lust for fighting that Ares kids often got when there was a fight. They always wanted to battle and if Capture the Flag was ever cancelled, they would be extremely disappointed or even angry. That was, of course, if Chiron didn't replace it with something more fun. I didn't know if he ever did that because I hadn't been at Camp Half-Blood for too long and it had never happened before.

The bull stopped, confused. It turned its head toward Clarisse who was shouting insults and calling the bull names. Then, it looked at me, the quiet one who smelled like tuna. Can you guess who it went after?

If you guessed me, you're wrong. It wheeled back toward Clarisse. I was about to go follow it, just to make sure that Clarisse could handle the bull safely. After all, she was down _into_ the valley toward camp and I was sure that if Clarisse slipped up, the entire camp would have to go and fight the bull to stop it from destroying everything.

I looked at the area where Clarisse was standing at. It was about halfway between the Big House and the top of Half-Blood Hill. I looked up at camp, which looked about as normal as it could be, but there was just this feeling I had. It was as if the camp's spirit had been taken away with the pine tree's. If the bulls could get through, I couldn't imagine what kind of attacks camp had received since the tree's poisoning.

I had taken three strides down the hill before I heard a loud crash and the sound of screaming. I turned around and saw Luke lying on the ground, groaning with pain. I also saw Annabeth who looked in pain.

I turned back down to Clarisse. She met my eyes and nodded. I knew she _thought_ she could handle the bull on her own, but she needed help. I called out to one of her brothers. "Hey, Mark! Help your sister!"

He scowled but obeyed.

I ran up the hill and looked over the other side. Tyson was at the base of the hill. His face looked panicked and worried. I looked over to what he was looking at and saw that Bull Number One had just smashed Thalia into the tall grass.

Something tugged at my arm. It was Luke and he was struggling to get up. He looked at me with wild blue eyes. "I'll go...help Thalia. Take care of Annabeth."

"Ow!" cried Annabeth from my other side. I looked down at her and saw that she was holding onto her right ankle, as if she'd twisted it. "Luke, wait!"

But he was gone, struggling down toward Thalia.

The bull had stopped going after Thalia once she flew into the tall grass. I watched as it turned toward me and Annabeth, its eyes glowing.

I stepped in front of Annabeth and held my sword in front of me like a pike. I would protect Annabeth at all costs.

"What are you doing?" Annabeth said, panicked. "You'll get burned to ashes! You can only save yourself from being burned if you have Medea's Sunscreen SPF 50,000! Do you have that? No, you don't! Stop being stupid, Seaweed Brain."

"I'm about to die and you're worrying about how I'm stupid?" I called as the bull began to charge.

"Well, unless you're immune to fire. Then you could survive. Please survive."

I focused on Luke and Thalia, who were beginning to make their way toward camp. Both of them looked really hurt. I caught Thalia's eyes, which said, _Put on a shirt!_

Then suddenly, I had a revelation. _Immune to fire_. I looked down at the hill toward Tyson, who was seemingly being pushed back by a magical force. I didn't know what was wrong because the borders were up where we were. It was almost as if there was a much weaker border around camp that could keep out weak monsters.

Like I had thought, Tyson was probably only a little kid. Despite that, I yelled, "I, Perseus Jackson, give Tyson, son of Poseidon, permission to enter camp!"

"Your brother?!" yelled Annabeth. Tyson looked up and starting running forward. I nodded and he began to sprint.

The bull was getting closer by the second and its mouth had opened, ready to blow fire. Suddenly, thunder shook the hillside and just as the bull got within attack distance, Tyson yelled, "Percy needs help!" and he dove between me and the bull as it unleashed a nuclear firestorm.

The blast swirled around him like a red tornado. I could only see the black silhouette of his body.

when the fire died, Tyson was still standing there, completely unharmed. Not even his grungy clothes were scorched. The bull must've been surprised because before it could unleash a second blast, Tyson balled his fists and slammed them into the bull's face. "BAD COW!"

His fists made a crater where the bronze bull's snout used to be. Two small columns of flame shot out of its ears. Tyson hit it again, and the bronze crumpled under his hands like aluminum foil. The bull's face now looked like a sock puppet pulled inside out.

"Down!" Tyson yelled.

The bull staggered and fell on its back. Its legs moved feebly in the air, steam coming out of its ruined head in odd places.

When I turned around, Annabeth was getting her backpack off, looking for some nectar. I knelt down and gently touched her ankle. "What happened?"

"Just twisted my ankle around the root of this tree," she said, pointing to the tree we were standing next to. In case I hadn't told you, there were actually a couple of trees around Half-Blood Hill. Only one of them was a pine tree though.

There was also a burning smell that I later learned was me. The hair on my arms had been completely singed off.

Annabeth looked down toward camp. "Looks like Clarisse has got things under control."

She'd impaled it through the back leg with a celestial bronze spear. Now, with its snout half gone and a huge gash in its side, it was trying to run in slow motion, going in circles like some kind of merry-go-round animal.

Clarisse pulled off her helmet and marched toward us. A strand of her stringy brown hair was smoldering, but she didn't seem to notice. "I thought I told you I had it under control," she snapped. "Why'd you send my brother to help me? I had it under control!"

"Oh don't even bother," I grumbled.

"Nice to see you too, Clarisse," Annabeth replied sarcastically.

"I don't need help!" she shouted. "I can do things perfectly fine on my own."

"Clarisse," Annabeth said, "you've got wounded campers."

That sobered her up. Even Clarisse cared about the soldiers under her command.

"I'll be back," she growled, then trudged off to assess the damage.

I turned to Tyson. "Good job, buddy."

He smiled. "Peanut butter sandwich?"

"Maybe," I grinned. "It depends."

Then I turned to Annabeth, who was still looking at Tyson with the slightest hint of disgust. "Why couldn't he get up to the top of the hill? He looked like he was trapped. Do you know anything about the camp?"

She shook her head. "I've only been here as long as you. I don't know."

"Probably just some immortal being," I concluded. "Oh well."

Just then, Luke and Thalia appeared next to us. "Percy! How did you get here so fast?" asked Thalia.

"Pegasi," was my short answer.

"Nice job," complimented Luke. "Thanks for helping Annie."

I noticed Annabeth's cheeks color a little. "Yeah. No problem, Luke."

Then I suddenly noticed Thalia and Luke's position. They were walking together, not one helping the other, or even both helping each other. They were walking as if they were a couple strolling through Central Park. Well, not exactly.

Luke had an arm around Thalia's shoulders and his other hand grasped her hand like in those cheesy movies when the guy was going to turn around to propose.

Thalia looked at my chest and frowned. "Seriously, Percy. Put a shirt on. Stop making me stare at you."

I looked down at my bare chest. There was really nothing special. "What are you staring at? My bruises?"

Thalia just rolled her eyes and turned to Annabeth. "Hey. What's wrong, Annabeth?"

Annabeth whispered something in her ear that I couldn't hear. Thalia nodded and made a straight face.

I wondered what they were talking about, but I didn't have much time to think about it just then. The whole side of the hill was burning. Wounded heroes needed attention. And there were still two banged-up bronze bulls to dispose of, which I didn't figure would fit in our normal recycling bins.

Clarisse came back over and wiped the soot off her forehead. "Jackson, if you're done trying to flirt with Blondie and Bird Nerd, we need to carry the wounded back to the Big House, let Tantalus know what's happened."

"Tantalus?" I asked.

"The activities director," Clarisse said impatiently.

"Chiron is the activities director. And where's Argus? He's head of security. He should be here."

Clarisse made a sour face. "Argus got fired. You two have been gone too long. Things are changing."

My face went pale and I turned to Annabeth. I hoped she was the same shade of white I was. "Is it because of the poisoning?" I asked.

"Finally," Clarisse said exasperated, "you know something."

"Wait," interrupted Luke, "what poisoning?"

Annabeth and I pointed at the pine tree and watched as Thalia and Luke's faces turned to ones of understanding and horror.

"The camp's borders are dying."

* * *

**Hey everyone,**

**This is part two of experiment one. It's like a science experiment except with writing. I kind of wish I could work on my poetry so that I can have Apollo say them. Well, then again, Apollo's poetry is pretty bad... Anyway, thanks for all of your support and I hope that you continue to support this story no matter how bad it may be. :)**

**Question of the Chapter: Why do you like (or hate) this story?****  
**

**I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	6. Tyson Gets Claimed

**Hey everyone,**

**A disclaimer: I don't own the excerpts that have been taken from Rick Riordan's _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: __Sea of Monsters_. I admit, I took a few excerpts. Also, this is a long chapter by expand Percy's thoughts. I'm sorry for being a little repetitive during the chapter.**

**Thanks to those who reviewed in the previous chapter:**

ROC95, chronos the cookie thief, May Salome Love, Justrockzyxxx, yanksrock615, IcyRose66, LyingTruth123, krasni, Slytherin Studios, Mithun, AlphaOfFanFiction, RickRiordanRocks & trodle.

**Thanks for reading everyone. You are all so awesome.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**

* * *

**Περσεύς 5**

**Tyson Gets Claimed**

Like I had briefly described earlier, camp felt much different from the easygoing feel that I had been accustomed to over the previous summer.

It was like if some helpful person has tried to "clean" your room at home, and suddenly you couldn't find what you were looking for. And even if nothing is missing in the end, do you get that creepy feeling that someone's been looking through your private stuff and dusting everything with lemon furniture nail polish?

That was what I felt when I saw Camp Half-Blood for the first time since last August.

On the surface, nothing really looked that different, besides the dying pine tree.

The Big House was still there with its blue gabled roof and its wraparound porch. The strawberry fields still baked in the sun. The same white-columned Greek buildings were scattered around the valley—the amphitheater, the combat arena, the dining pavilion overlooking Long Island Sound. And nestled between the woods and the creek were the same cabins—a crazy assortment of twelve buildings, each representing a different Olympian god.

But now there was an aura of danger that surrounded the camp. You could tell something was seriously wrong.

Instead of playing volleyball in the sandpit, counselors and satyrs were stockpiling weapons in the tool shed. Dryads armed with bows and arrows talked nervously at the edge of the woods. The forest looked sickly, the grass in the meadow was pale yellow, and the fire marks on Half-Blood Hill stood out like ugly scars.

Somebody had messed with my favorite place in the world, and I was not ... well, a happy camper.

As we made our way to the Big House, I recognized a lot of kids from last summer. Nobody stopped to talk. Nobody said, "Welcome back." Some did double takes when they saw Tyson, but most just walked grimly past and carried on with their duties—running messages, toting swords to sharpen on the grinding wheels. The camp felt like a military school.

It was after the tenth person that saw me who finally tossed me a Camp Half-Blood T-shirt to put on.

None of that mattered to Tyson, though. He was absolutely fascinated by everything he saw. "Whasthat!" he gasped.

"The stables for pegasi," I said.

"Whasthat!"

"Um...those are the toilets."

"Whasthat!"

"The cabins for the campers. If they don't know who your Olympian parent is, they put you in the Hermes cabin—that brown one over there—until you're determined. Then, once they know, they put you in your dad or mom's group."

"Which cabin is ours?"

"That one." I pointed to a low gray building made of sea stone.

"We have other brothers and sisters to live with?"

"No. No, just me." I didn't feel like explaining. The embarrassing truth: I was the only one who stayed in that cabin because I wasn't supposed to be alive.

I tried to avoid thinking about that fact, but it would come back to me every once in a while. Another truth was that the last living sibling I had was Sir Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom during World War II. That was when the Big Three created the pact to never sire any more children.

I had also learned that all of Hades' children were to be killed because Zeus was threatened they would avenge their father. However, Churchill and Zeus' son Franklin D. Roosevelt were allowed to live the rest of their lives fairly.

The pact had been broken twice and ironically, it was broken by the two who created it. Hades was the only one who'd kept his word and did not sire any children.

When we got to the Big House, we found Chiron in his apartment, listening to his favorite 1960s lounge music while he packed his saddlebags. I guess I should mention—Chiron is a centaur. From the waist up he looks like a regular middle-aged guy with curly brown hair and a scraggly beard. From the waist down, he's a white stallion. He can pass for human by compacting his lower half into a magic wheelchair.

Most of the time, if the ceilings are high enough, he prefers hanging out in full centaur form.

As soon as we saw him, Tyson froze. "Pony!" he cried in total rapture.

Chiron turned, looking offended. "I beg your pardon?"

Thalia, looking worried, immediately said, "Chiron! What's happening? You're...leaving?" Her voice was laced with distraught.

Chiron gave us a kindly smiled.

"Hello, children." He turned to me. "My goodness Percy. You have grown a substantial amount over the year!"

I swallowed. "Clarisse said you were...you were..." I couldn't get the words out. Chiron was like my guardian, being there when Poseidon couldn't personally. He had helped me quite a bit and helped improve my defensive techniques for sword fighting _a lot_.

"Fired." Chiron's eyes glinted with dark humor. "Ah, well, someone had to take the blame. Lord Zeus was most upset. The tree he'd created from the spirit of his son so very long ago, poisoned! Mr. D had to punish someone."

"Because he can't get off of his lazy ass and look for a culprit," I growled. Just thinking about the stupid camp director, Mr. D, made me angry. "Besides. I know who did it. It was Ethan Nakamura."

Chiron's expression turned grim. "Now, Percy. It is not right to accuse—"

"It was Ethan," I insisted. "He wants to destroy camp."

Chiron sighed and turned to Annabeth. "Did you know that it was the son of Nemesis' fault?"

She shook her head. "No. This is the first time I heard about it."

He took a deep breath in and sighed heavily, again. Luke looked disturbed at the fact that Ethan had done it. "But...that's crazy. Why would they fire you for poisoning the tree? Why would they accuse you? You have been loyal to the gods for so long."

Chiron smiled sadly. "Yes, but I do have a connection with the Titan Lord that the gods have not forgotten about. They have every right to blame me."

"Why can't they gather evidence at first?" I asked. "Just because Mr. D has to fire someone, he doesn't have to just point his finger at the closest person. In fact, this was all Zeus' fault. Even if you are the most paranoid god in the universe doesn't mean that you have to blame the closest person over the poisoning of a son that sacrificed himself hundreds of years ago! He sacrificed his life! He took on the duty! Why do you have to be such a crazy—"

Thunder clapped loudly and angrily, interrupting my rant.

Chiron put a hand on my shoulder. "What is done is done. You must not let your emotions control you. Though the venom is something I have never seen before and must have been taken from a monster in the deepest depths of Tartarus, I have been blamed. But you must promise me one thing. You will not go out and do something stupid to get revenge on Ethan Nakamura. You will help camp prepare defense systems to protect camp after the borders die."

"But—"

"That is final. There are no exceptions."

It was too late. I let my emotions consume me and a harmless glass of water that sat on the table near us exploded into a million shards, spraying water everywhere. Then I stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind me.

Chiron seriously couldn't believe that I would do nothing to help save camp. There had to be something. Something like a special magic healing device. I racked my brain for any myths about special magical healing devices.

I frowned when I couldn't find any myths that related to magical healing devices.

_Man I wish I had the Golden Fleece_, I thought longingly. _Wait a minute_...

The definition of the Golden Fleece: a magical artifact with powerful, magical, healing abilities. In the original Greek myths (which I can't believe I forgot), the mortal hero Jason collected the artifact on his journey.

The Golden Fleece would work to help save the camp's borders. It had to, otherwise nothing in this world would be able to save the camp. Somehow, I could locate the magical object and then save the camp. There had to be a way to find it. I just needed a little heads up of where to start.

But how would I get the heads up? Who would know where the Golden Fleece was. After thinking about the story more and more, I slowly remembered that the shiny object had been lost for hundreds of years and practically disappeared of the face of the earth.

After changing into jeans, I went and stood at the edge of the strawberry fields, looking out at the children of Demeter and Dionysus picking strawberries or helping them grow. I figured that the less powerful demigods got the labor jobs.

The sun shone as the summer poured down on the earth and heat radiated like a...well, heater.

Unfortunately, there was still that odd chill that continuously tingled my spine while I stood in camp. It was as if the camp were dying along with the tree. It was as if the life force of the camp was held within the tree. It was as if the tree provided life to camp and the source had run out.

"I'm very repetitive," I muttered to myself.

Someone suddenly jumped out of the bushes. A mop of curly brown hair emerged first, before the form of a skinny boy not much older than me appeared underneath. "I'm not staring at Katie!" he denied.

I suddenly knew who it was. It was Travis Stoll. Connor Stoll was my age and Travis was one year older so they looked very similar to one another. The only way I could tell them apart was to look at their tendencies.

Last summer, I had seen Travis around the edges of the strawberry fields whenever the Demeter cabin was there. I wasn't sure whether he was scouting the area to prank them, or if he was waiting for some kind of explosion to go off in the strawberry fields.

Now, he just exposed his secret. He was only there because he was attracted to Katie.

Katie was the head counselor of the Demeter cabin. She had dark brown hair and brown eyes, similar to her mom. She was Travis' age and was pretty in an earthy way. I wasn't sure why Travis liked her though. He usually liked to play pranks on people whereas Katie was a more reasonable person.

"You like Katie?" I asked him.

"Uh, no," he replied. "I'm just looking for a good way to prank her."

"C'mon," I said. "Lighten up. I'm not a monster or anything."

Travis looked at me hesitantly and then dropped his gaze back down to the ground. "Sure. I kind of do. I mean, I don't feel like this all the time, but maybe it's just something small. Like a tiny crush or something," he admitted.

I shrugged. "Okay."

I was about to walk away when the thought of the Golden Fleece came back to me. I turned to him. "Hey, Travis. Do you, by any chance, know where I could get advice on where the Golden Fleece could be?"

Travis did a double take. "Did you say Golden Fleece?"

I nodded.

"The thing that heals the land around wherever it is?"

"I think so."

"No, but that would totally awesome to bring to camp to save the borders. I mean, fighting is cool and all, but I like pranking other cabins. It's so fun!"

I chuckled. "Yeah. Sure. By the way, did you follow through and throw bird crap on the Demeter cabin?"

"Yeah. Katie got so mad. She could've killed me, but I used my manly power to persuade her not to."

"You mean you screamed for Chiron."

He grinned sheepishly. "Pretty much."

I was so engrossed in the fun that the campers could still have at camp that the idea of the borders dying was tucked into the back of my head. It happened often. My thoughts were so wild and free that often they got lost in the roaring winds of my brain. I think my ADHD was just an addition to fuel the winds, like the warm water that fueled a hurricane.

But just as quickly, the thoughts could swirl back.

That was exactly what happened. My tight smile turned grim and I turned away, looking out toward Fireworks Beach. Memories came back of Luke, Thalia, Annabeth and I at the Fourth of July fireworks show.

The fireworks that Beckendorf and his siblings made were so awesome. They exploded into like a million colors and images of famous people. When Hercules had come up, I may have muttered degrading things about him out loud so that the others could hear. It was what I was raised with though.

I didn't like the guy for his brawn. The only decent thing about him was that he got a lot of rotten luck. Even more than I did.

"Percy?" a faint voice asked. "Percy?"

I snapped back to attention. "Huh? What?"

"Percy," said Travis. "Um. Beckendorf is here. Not sure what he wants to talk about with you, but I'm pushing for answers."

_Stupid ADHD_, I thought.

That was when I finally noticed Beckendorf standing next to Travis. He looked even dirtier and greasier than when I last saw him last summer.

"Hey Beckendorf," I greeted. "What's up?"

"Just need to talk. You helped me a lot last summer so I just need a little advice."

I was confused. What did I help Beckendorf with last summer? All I did was get him to talk to Silena a little bit. "Okay. Sure."

We left Travis to stay near the strawberry fields and made our way toward the dining pavilion, where dinner was to soon be called.

"Percy," Beckendorf started. "Thank you for getting Silena to finally talk to me. I know I have a crush on her, but I mean. Baby steps. I wish girls were as easy to figure out as the velocity of a trireme with the ability to run off of lime."

I blinked. "I think that girls _are_ easier to figure out as the velocity of a trireme with the ability to run off of lime. How the hell would you find the velocity of something that floats on water?"

"It would be a magical trireme. I hope one day that I can build something as wonderful as that. And if I can't, someone who sleeps in my bunk will. I know it."

"How can you know something before it happens? It's not the way fate is like."

"Stop being a pessimist, Perce. Anyway, do you have any advice?"

"On what?"

"How to get her to like me!"

"Oh." I scratched my head a little. "Not exactly sure. Just find out what she likes, I guess. Always be nice to her. Don't try to please her with everything. Just act like yourself. Pretend you're friends? I don't really know this kind of stuff."

"You're talking to a son of Hephaestus, the least social god of all," Beckendorf said. "I think that your advice is as good as I can tell."

"At least everyone in camp likes you," I said bitterly. "You don't have a reputation of bringing weird creatures into camp. Tyson isn't a freak, though!"

"He's a Cyclops," he replied. "Everyone is disturbed by Cyclopes, except for children of Hephaestus. We work in the forge and they work in the forge. By the way, Tyson was tinkering with a little object. I think he could create something cool. If he offers it to you, don't hesitate to take it."

I shrugged. "Sure. I just hope people don't freak out when they find out."

"His parentage?" Beckendorf guessed.

I nodded.

He sighed. "I pity whoever has to live with the giant."

I suddenly felt defensive of my friend. "What's that supposed to mean?" I asked hotly.

He raised his hands defensively. "I was just saying that whichever cabin gets the kid, they're going to be made fun of a lot. Though..." He turned to me. "Cyclopes tend to be children of one god specifically..."

"Don't say a word," I threatened him dangerously.

He rose up to his full height, which was a few inches taller than me. "Are you threatening me?" he asked mock-angrily.

"I'm serious," I said in a deadly tone. "Tyson doesn't deserve to be made fun of. If anyone is to blame, it should be..." I stumbled, trying to find a legitimate answer. "If anyone is to blame, it should be...my father. It was his fault Tyson was born in the first place."

After saying that, I immediately winced. Should I have blamed my dad because he was the only one _to_ blame? It wasn't the right thing to do. I'd been raised better. But I couldn't shake the slight feeling of anger that I felt toward my father that had started to grow as time passed.

Why would my father do something like this? First, he creates me, an illegal half-blood child. Then, he creates Tyson, who he cheated on his wife, Amphitrite, to make.

_Are the gods truly better than the Titans?_

"I don't think you should blame your father," Beckendorf said. "First of all, gods always feel lust. It's a part of their personalities. Second of all, he could easily destroy you."

"He wouldn't do that," I said. "I had wanted to multiple times on my journey on the streets of the United States. But I never did. Two of the three times was because my father had come to tell me not to. The third was because I wanted to avenge the death of my mother and Viola. I'm not going to avenge my mom by going against the gods, but rather live and become someone my mom would be proud of."

He looked down a little. I had almost forgotten that most demigods had unstable mortal parents. Beckendorf's mother had been very nice, but after meeting Hephaestus, she got hit by a car and damaged her brain. She was pretty much stupid.

I was a stupid but depressing story. If you knew how nice Beckendorf was, you'd feel the same way I did.

Suddenly, the conch horn blew as we walked through the entrance of the dining pavilion.

"Perfect timing," Beckendorf said. "I'll see you later, I guess. Good luck with Tyson."

Then he walked off to bring his cabin into the dining pavilion.

I sat at my table and watched as campers began to file in.

The first people were the Athena cabin. Annabeth led them, becoming the head counselor after Malcolm gave up his position when she came back from the quest for the Master Bolt. She truly deserved it, being the best strategist and being a skilled fighter.

She looked at me and mouthed, _Are you okay?_

I gave her the patented Jackson grin and winked. I mouthed back, _I'm fine. I've been through worse pain_.

The bruises from the fight with the bulls were still there, making me wince once in a while, but otherwise as harmless as fruit flies.

Next came Clarisse, leading the Ares cabin. She had one arm in a sling and a nasty-looking gash on her cheek, but otherwise her encounter with the bronze bulls didn't seem to have fazed her. Someone had taped a piece of paper to her back that said, YOU MOO, GIRL!

But nobody in her cabin was bothering to tell her about it.

After the Ares kids came the Hephaestus cabin—six guys led by my good friend Charles Beckendorf, a big fifteen-year-old African American kid.

He gave me a tight smile and I returned it with a simple nod.

Luke came in next, leading the Hermes cabin. Before Ethan Nakamura left, he gave Luke the spot of Hermes head counselor. Now he was responsible for going to war council meetings. I think that it was all the better because he was a skilled fighter and had decent strategies. He knew many different sword fighting techniques and even taught me how to do some (which was a big mistake because I could now easily defeat him).

He gave me a concerned look, but I shook it off.

Then came Thalia, all alone. She looked at me hesitantly, then quickly turned her head to one of the other tables, though I wasn't sure which. She looked...indecisive, as if she had a big decision that was weighing down on her shoulders. Everything had gotten so complicated since this morning, I couldn't even comprehend it all.

From this morning, when Thalia and Luke were fighting about waking up, to now, where Thalia was indecisive, Luke was concerned about how people would treat me after learning Tyson was my brother, and Annabeth, who'd just appeared this morning, acting as if she were my nurse, or maid, or like a wife or something.

Thalia just shook her head and walked to her table.

The other cabins filed in: Demeter, Apollo, Aphrodite, Dionysus. Naiads came up from the canoe lake.

Dryads melted out of the trees. From the meadow came a dozen satyrs, who reminded me of Grover.

I'd always had a soft spot for the satyrs. When they were at camp, they had to do all kinds of odd jobs for Mr. D, the director, but their most important work was out in the real world. They were the camp's seekers. They went undercover into schools all over the world, looking for potential half-bloods and escorting them back to camp.

Then I realized I forgot to ask Thalia about what happened to Grover. _Or did she tell me already?_ I decided I would just ask her later.

Then Tyson was the last to shuffle in. I got up and escorted him up to the middle of the pavilion. Conversations faltered. Heads turned. "Who invited _that?_" somebody at the Apollo table murmured.

I glared in their direction, but I couldn't figure out who'd spoken.

From the head table a familiar voice drawled, "Well, well, if it isn't Peter Johnson. My millennium is complete."

I gritted my teeth._ "Percy Jackson_... sir."

Mr. D sipped his Diet Coke. "Yes. Well, as you young people say these days: _Whatever."_

He was wearing his usual leopard-pattern Hawaiian shirt, walking shorts, and tennis shoes with black socks. With his pudgy belly and his blotchy red face, he looked like a Las Vegas tourist who'd stayed up too late in the casinos. Behind him, a nervous-looking satyr was peeling the skins off grapes and handing them to Mr. D one at a time.

Mr. D's real name is Dionysus. The god of wine. Zeus appointed him director of Camp Half-Blood to dry out for a hundred years—a punishment for chasing some off-limits wood nymph.

Next to him, where Chiron usually sat (or stood, in centaur form), was someone I'd never seen before—a pale, horribly thin man in a threadbare orange prisoner's jump suit. The number over his pocket read 0001.

He had blue shadows under his eyes, dirty fingernails, and badly cut gray hair, like his last haircut had been done with a weed whacker. He stared at me; his eyes made me feel a deep emotion I hadn't felt since being in the Underworld. He looked...fractured. Angry and frustrated and hungry all at the same time.

"This boy," Dionysus told him, "you need to watch. Poseidon's child, you know. My little half-sister is alright, though. She isn't so harmless."

"Who are you calling harm—"

"Anyway," Dionysus interrupted. "This is the boy."

"Ah!" the prisoner said. "That one."

His tone made it obvious that he and Dionysus had already discussed me at length.

"I am Tantalus," the prisoner said, smiling coldly. "On special assignment here until, well, until my Lord Dionysus decides otherwise. And you, Perseus Jackson, I _do _expect you to refrain from causing any more trouble. I'm sure the Hermes boy and daughter of the mighty Zeus tried stopping you."

"What?" I asked irritated.

Dionysus snapped his fingers. A newspaper appeared on the table—the front page of today's _New York Post. _There was my yearbook picture from Meriwether Prep. It was hard for me to make out the headline, but I had a pretty good guess what it said.

Something like:_ Thirteen-Year-Old Lunatic and Friends Torch Gymnasium._

"Yes, trouble," Tantalus said with satisfaction. "You caused plenty of it last summer, I understand."

I was too mad to speak. Like it was _my _fault the gods had almost gotten into a civil war?

A satyr inched forward nervously and set a plate of barbecue in front of Tantalus. The new activities director licked his lips. He looked at his empty goblet and said, "Root beer. Barq's special stock. 1967."

The glass filled itself with foamy soda. Tantalus stretched out his hand hesitantly, as if he were afraid the goblet was hot.

"Go on, then, old fellow," Dionysus said, a strange sparkle in his eyes. "Perhaps now it will work."

Tantalus grabbed for the glass, but it scooted away before he could touch it. A few drops of root beer spilled, and Tantalus tried to dab them up with his fingers, but the drops rolled away like quicksilver before he could touch them. He growled and turned toward the plate of barbecue. He picked up a fork and tried to stab a piece of brisket, but the plate skittered down the table and flew off the end, straight into the coals of the brazier.

"Blast!" Tantalus muttered.

"Ah, well," Dionysus said, his voice dripping with false sympathy. "Perhaps a few more days. Believe me, old chap, working at this camp will be torture enough. I'm sure your old curse will fade eventually."

"Eventually," muttered Tantalus, staring at Dionysus's Diet Coke. "Do you have any idea how dry one's throat gets after three thousand years?"

"You're that spirit from the Fields of Punishment," I said. "The one who stands in the lake with the fruit tree hanging over you, but you can't eat or drink."

Tantalus sneered at me. "A real scholar, aren't you, boy?"

"You must've done something really horrible when you were alive," I said, mildly impressed. "What was it?"

Tantalus's eyes narrowed. Behind him, the satyrs were shaking their heads vigorously, trying to warn me. I wasn't scared.

"I'll be watching you, Percy Jackson," Tantalus said. "I don't want any problems at my camp."

"_Your _camp has problems already ... sir."

"Oh, go sit down, Johnson," Dionysus sighed. "I believe that table over there is yours—the one where no one else ever wants to sit."

My face was burning and I was close to exploding, but I knew better than to talk back. Dionysus was an overgrown brat, but he was an immortal, super powerful overgrown brat.

I said, "Come on, Tyson."

"Oh, no," Tantalus said. "The monster stays here. We must decide what to do with it."

_"Him," _I snapped. "His name is Tyson."

The new activities director raised an eyebrow.

"Tyson saved the camp," I insisted. "He pounded those bronze bulls. Otherwise they would've burned down this whole place."

"Yes," Tantalus sighed, "and _what _a pity that would've been."

Dionysus snickered.

"Yeah, because you two totally care about this camp," I said sarcastically.

Dionysus stared at me pointedly. "Watch your mouth or I'll follow through with what I promised I would do last summer."

"Leave us," Tantalus ordered, "while we decide this creature's fate."

Tyson looked at me with fear in his one big eye, but I knew I couldn't disobey a direct order from the camp directors. Not openly, anyway.

"I'll be right over here, big guy," I promised. "Don't worry. We'll find you a good place to sleep tonight."

Tyson nodded. "With you, in cabin three?"

I looked down. "Maybe, big guy. Maybe."

He smiled. "I believe we can. You are my brother."

Which made me feel a whole lot guiltier.

I trudged over to the Poseidon table and slumped onto the bench. A wood nymph brought me a plate of Olympian olive-and-pepperoni pizza, but I wasn't hungry. I'd been almost killed twice today. I'd managed to end my school year with a complete disaster. Camp Half-Blood was in serious trouble and Chiron had told me not to do anything about it.

I didn't feel very thankful, but I took my dinner, as was customary, up to the bronze brazier and scraped part of it into the flames.

"Poseidon," I murmured, "accept my offering."

_And send me some help while you're at it, _I prayed silently. _Please._

The smoke from the burning pizza changed into something fragrant—the smell of a clean sea breeze with wild-flowers mixed in—but I had no idea if that meant my father was really listening.

I went back to my seat. I didn't think things could get much worse. But then Tantalus had one of the satyrs blow the conch horn to get our attention for announcements.

"Yes, well," Tantalus said, once the talking had died down. "Another fine meal! Or so I am told." As he spoke, he inched his hand toward his refilled dinner plate, as if maybe the food wouldn't notice what he was doing, but it did. It shot away down the table as soon as he got within six inches.

"And here on my first day of authority," he continued, "I'd like to say what a pleasant form of punishment it is to be here. Over the course of the summer, I hope to torture, er, interact with each and every one of you children. You all look good enough to eat."

"Seriously," I muttered to myself. "This guy seriously needs to stop being such a cannibal."

But it made sense for Dionysus to replace Chiron with Tantalus. Dionysus hated the campers and wanted to torture them, but he couldn't without getting punishment from Zeus. If he got someone else to help him, he could pin the blame on the other and go away home free. Like I said, he was an overgrown brat and I wish I could stuff a pacifier down his throat.

Dionysus clapped politely, leading to some half-hearted applause from the satyrs. Tyson was still standing at the head table, looking uncomfortable, but every time he tried to scoot out of the limelight, Tantalus pulled him back.

"And now some changes!" Tantalus gave the campers a crooked smile. "We are reinstituting the chariot races!"

Murmuring broke out at all the tables—excitement, fear, disbelief.

"Now I know," Tantalus continued, raising his voice, "that these races were discontinued some years ago due to, ah, technical problems."

"Three deaths and twenty-six mutilations," someone at the Apollo table called.

"Yes, yes!" Tantalus said. "But I know that you will all join me in welcoming the return of this camp tradition. Golden laurels will go to the winning charioteers each month. Teams may register in the morning! The first race will be held in three days' time. We will release you from most of your regular activities to prepare your chariots and choose your horses. Oh, and did I mention, the victorious team's cabin will have no chores for the month in which they win?"

An explosion of excited conversation—no KP for a whole month? No stable cleaning?

Was he serious?

Then the last person I expected to object did so.

"But, sir!" Clarisse said. She looked nervous, but she stood up to speak from the Ares table. Some of the campers snickered when they saw the YOU MOO, GIRL! sign on her back. "What about patrol duty? I mean, if we drop everything to ready our chariots—"

"Ah, the hero of the day," Tantalus exclaimed. "Brave Clarisse, who single-handedly bested the bronze bulls!"

"Are you serious?" called Thalia from the Zeus table. "You've gotta be kidding me."

Tantalus turned to her with an innocent look. "Kidding about what, Thalia?"

"About Clarisse single-handedly defeating the bronze bulls!"

"Ah, yes! The daughter of Ares is a marvelous fighter. The way she sliced and diced the bulls as if they were made of human flesh," he smiled.

"She didn't do it on her own," she snapped. "I helped. Luke helped. Annabeth helped. Percy helped."

Tantalus turned to Dionysus who still wore a lazy expression. Dionysus waved a lazy hand and Tantalus looked coolly at the daughter of Zeus. "You would do well not to talk back."

"You would do well to shut your face up and go back to suffering in hell!"

"Thanks Tania for volunteering to do kitchen duty," Dionysus said. "Keep your mouth shut and maybe you won't have to."

The seething daughter of Zeus angrily turned back to face her table, electricity sparking from her fingertips. Her shocking blue eyes turned dark, almost as if they were rainstorms. Then thunder echoed in the sky.

"Anyway," said Tantalus, "back to Clarisse defeating the bulls on her own."

I turned back to Clarisse who still looked a little shocked that she was getting credit for something for once. She knew people talked behind her back. She wasn't _that_ stupid.

Clarisse blinked, then blushed. "Um, I didn't—"

"And modest, too." Tantalus grinned. "Not to worry, my dear! This is a summer camp. We are here to enjoy ourselves, yes?"

"But the tree—"

"And now," Tantalus said, as several of Clarisse's cabin mates pulled her back into her seat, "before we proceed to the campfire and sing-along, one slight housekeeping issue. Percy Jackson has seen fit, for some reason, to bring _this _here." Tantalus waved a hand toward Tyson.

Uneasy murmuring spread among the campers. A lot of sideways looks at me. I wanted to kill Tantalus.

"Now, of course," he said, "Cyclopes have a reputation for being bloodthirsty monsters with a very small brain capacity. Under normal circumstances, I would release this beast into the woods and have you hunt it down with torches and pointed sticks. But who knows? Perhaps this Cyclops is not as horrible as most of its brethren. Until it proves worthy of destruction, we need a place to keep it! I've thought about the stables, but that will make the horses nervous. Hermes' cabin, possibly?"

Silence at the Hermes table. Luke looked troubled and the rest of his cabin developed a sudden interest in the tablecloth. I couldn't blame them. The Hermes cabin was always full to bursting. There was no way they could take in a six-foot-three Cyclops.

Added to the fact that Luke somehow disliked Tyson after spending a whole year around him, it was a terrible idea.

"Come now," Tantalus chided. "The monster may be able to do some menial chores. Any suggestions as to where such a beast should be kenneled?"

Nobody answered. I looked at the campers hesitantly. Would they really make fun of me if he was my brother? I guess so. But I was willing to take the risk. I would always sacrifice first, my friends being at the top of my priority list.

_Claim him, father_, I prayed. _Claim Tyson._

And he listened.

As I watched a green light start shimmering out of thin air, everyone gasped.

Tantalus scooted away from Tyson in surprise. I looked down in shame, not knowing what to do. I was torn. Tyson was one of the best Cyclopes you'd ever meet. Though young, he was nice, kind and generous. But I was also ashamed to have a monster for a half-brother.

Now that I wasn't worried about camp being attacked, those thoughts about camp's safety dissipated from the hurricane and thoughts about Tyson being my brother became more prominent.

Despite this, I looked up, a steely expression written across my face.

Swirling over Tyson was a glowing green trident—the same symbol that had appeared above me the day Poseidon had claimed me as his son.

There was a moment of awed silence.

Being claimed was a rare event. Some campers waited in vain for it their whole lives.

When I'd been claimed by Poseidon last summer, everyone had reverently knelt. But now, they followed Tantalus's lead, and Tantalus roared with laughter. "Well! I think we know where to put the beast now. By the gods, I can see the family resemblance!"

Everybody laughed except Annabeth and a few of my other friends.

Tyson, who already knew I was his brother, listened to the laughing campers. Then his lower lip started to tremble and tears began forming in his eyes.

That just made everyone laugh harder.

He had been the victim of bullying for the past school year, and even at a new place, they made fun of it. It was cruel how harsh the world was, but you need to know how to be tough and handle anything it throws at you.

Tyson looked at me helplessly and I got up from the table.

I went over to him to try and console him. He had flipped the Hera table (which I was sure the goddess would not be happy about), and was punching the ground. It made him look silly and the laughing got harder and harder.

I looked up at the campers, some with tears in their eyes from laughing too hard. I saw my friends giving me pitying looks. But I didn't need pity. Annabeth was one of the two who didn't give me pitying looks—she and Beckendorf.

"Shut up!" I yelled, to try to stop them from laughing, as their laughter made it harder for me to control Tyson. Nobody listened though. Everyone was laughing too hard.

Now I was getting irritated. What if they had monster brothers or sisters? How would they feel if that were true for them. "I said, shut up!" I yelled again. Still no one listened.

My anger rose like air swelling in a balloon. But this balloon could pop easily. "SHUT UP!" I roared, like the waves of a tsunami.

Suddenly, everyone stopped. They all looked at me with mixed emotions, fear among them.

"How would you feel," I said in a dangerously calm voice, "if you had a monster for a sibling. You wouldn't feel too good would you, especially with people mocking you."

That statement silenced everyone.

And with that, I walked away trying to console my half-brother, a monster, Tyson.

* * *

**Hey everyone,**

**This is part two of experiment one. It's like a science experiment except with writing. I kind of wish I could work on my poetry so that I can have Apollo say them. Well, then again, Apollo's poetry is pretty bad... Anyway, thanks for all of your support and I hope that you continue to support this story no matter how bad it may be. :)**

**Question of the Chapter: Why do you like (or hate) this series of stories? (Both this story and _On the Run_)****  
**

**I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	7. Demon Birds Attack

**Hey everyone,**

**I'm back! La la la. Here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy. Sorry if it's a repeat just adding some stuff in of the real book. You know the drill. I'm kind of in a rush, but I promise that I will update this chapter with all of those who reviewed for chapter five and six (and if you reviewed for the preview of chapter 6, send me a pm voicing your thoughts. I reply to them anyways.**

******Disclaimer: I don't own _any_ excerpts taken from Rick Riordan's book _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters._**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**

* * *

**Περσεύς 6**

**Demon Birds Attack**

Now I know how Clarisse felt.

The good thing was that I got people to stop making fun of Tyson. The bad part? No one talked to me besides my close friends. Luke, Thalia and Annabeth still talked to me but they acted more distant than ever. Beckendorf, the Stoll brothers, Silena Beauregard, Katie Gardener and Clarisse still talked to me.

Yeah, you heard right. I did say Clarisse. Most of our time talking was throwing insults at each other, though she kind of hinted at not wanting appreciation from Tantalus. Unlike the previous year, she was a little less angry this year and looked more weary (though she wouldn't admit it). I had a feeling that maybe someone she was close to "disappeared" and never came back.

I didn't feel pity for the girl. She was too strong to need pity. She could handle herself. But I did sympathize with her a little bit. I mean, if the person she was close to was someone who she had a crush on...I mean, that's a little harsh having someone you like, even if only a little bit, turning to the other side.

Notice how I didn't say evil side. That's because the Titans weren't evil. Kronos was, but overall, the Titans were okay. Prometheus joined the gods in the First Titanomachy. Plus, there were a lot of more peaceful Titans. I wondered how Coeus was doing up in Canada.

Anyway, I got to talk with Beckendorf and Silena again in a few days. They were both hanging out at the stables.

When I was walking there, I noticed that Silena was standing above him as he was fixing what seemed to be the door. It wasn't a regular door. Though my dad was the father of horses, I didn't know what those half-doors were called. You know, the one with the empty top and the shut bottom. There seemed to be a problem with it.

I walked up from behind them. "Hey guys," I said wearily.

They both jumped. Silena slipped and fell right on top of Beckendorf. I watched as they met eyes. _Are they going to..?_

I looked away, not wanting to spoil the moment.

I know nothing about love (that was Silena's topic), but I always get this feeling whenever I know or see two people with that special connection. Some might refer to it as being "gay," but I think it's just that you're happy for your friends.

I was looking down toward the cabins when I was thinking about that. More specifically, the Athena cabin.

I didn't know why.

After what seemed like twenty seconds, Beckendorf finally greeted me: "Hey, Percy."

I turned back to the two, both looking a little red. Other than that, Beckendorf was his usual greasy, fit self and Silena was her usual pretty self.

"Hey...um...let's pretend I didn't see that," I said back.

"Sure," said Silena. "I mean...well..."

"Whatever," Beckendorf interrupted. "Anyway, why'd you come here? Having problems with the other campers?"

"Yeah."

I went over to where the small hill that led up to the stables and sat down at the top. I heard the other two follow me. I sighed and started confessing everything that I was thinking about to them. I told them about the Titans and how I knew a way to save the camp. I told them about all of my frustrations and complications. I told them every single detail that was bothering me and the two just sat there listening to every word I had to say.

It was no wonder why people liked both of them. Beckendorf was usually quiet so he was an attentive listener. Silena was just...different from her siblings. Most of her siblings wouldn't give damn about anything anyone says unless it has to do with perfume, makeup, love or Luke. Even the guys talked about him.

When I finished my story, Silena scooted closer to me. "It must be hard, Percy." I smelled her breath, which was a mix of all the most wonderful things in the world. I wonder what toothpaste she uses. Don't get the wrong idea. I don't like Silena. Beckendorf does.

Beckendorf clapped a hand on my shoulder. "Yeah, Perce. That sounds bad. But you can't let them get to your head. Maybe you should ask Annabeth or Thalia or Luke about the Golden Fleece. Maybe they have info about it."

"See, that's the thing." I breathed in, taking a pause. "They've been acting really distant. It started ever since the last day of school. Ever since we came to camp. I don't know why. It's like they have a problem with Tyson or something."

He shrugged. "Maybe it's because he's a Cyclops. They might have a problem with Cyclopes. Bad experiences maybe?"

"Well if they have," I said, miffed, "why won't they tell me about it. It's not like it's some sort of big secret."

Then Annabeth appeared.

Beckendorf patted me on the back and got up. He turned to Silena. "Do you still need the stable doors fixed?"

She nodded. "You're such good help, Charlie. You're probably the best mechanic in this whole camp."

He blushed. "Thanks, Ms. Beauregard."

"Or maybe...Mrs. Be—"

I coughed purposefully, trying to interrupt them. Annabeth was now standing right in front of me, giving the other two a weird look. It looked wistful yet creeped out at the same time. She looked like she'd just run a marathon. I figured Annabeth had just come from racing with the wood nymphs. Being out on the run made me fast, but those nymphs were just the definition of fast (or quick or speedy).

They turned to me and blushed. "Sorry," they muttered simultaneously and walked off.

I turned back to Annabeth. "So... What are you here for?"

"I just wanted to ask if you wanted to team up for the chariot race," she said. "Just because...you know, Poseidon and Athena made the chariot and horses together."

I smiled bitterly. "Sure, why not. It explains why you're so nice to me now."

She looked confused. "What are you talking about Seaweed Brain?"

I gave her an _are-you-serious_ look. "You, Thalia and Luke have practically ignored me since we got here and now you're acting like nothing has happened. Why don't you partner up with your brother or your sister? You know, the ones who are also ignoring me despite the fact that we lived together for a whole school year."

Suddenly, I felt angry. It was spontaneous. And Annabeth looked taken aback. She turned away timidly, unlike the prideful Annabeth I'd known. "Sorry. I guess that means you don't want to work with me. I guess...I guess I'll stop bothering you."

She looked so different and sad that my anger dissipated as fast as it had come. As she took a step forward, I grabbed onto her shoulder and dragged her back. I spun her around so that she was facing me. "Listen, Annabeth. I'm sorry and I know I shouldn't be taking out all of my anger on you. It's just Tyson and..."

I didn't need to finish.

She nodded but kept quiet. I looked at her, trying to see if she was implying anything with her body language. I noticed nothing. Then a random question popped into my head. "Why do you hate Tyson so much. You, Luke and Thalia. Did you have a bad experience with a Cyclops before?"

She didn't answer verbally but her silence made it clear that she, Thalia and Luke had had a run-in with a Cyclops before and it hadn't gone well.

"Come," I told her. "Let's go work on a chariot. And who knows. Maybe you and Tyson'll get along eventually."

She gave a brief smile and quietly responded, "Thanks."

We went to sit by the canoe lake to sketch chariot designs. Annabeth grabbed a sketchpad from her cabin and we looked at cool designs that Tyson had shown me while I waited for Annabeth to get the sketchpad.

I was forming little shapes in the water. I made quadrilaterals, three-dimensional figures and even as far as forming a chariot with the design Annabeth was working on carved into the side.

Her mood got better as time passed and we both got to the point where we told jokes to each other and started laughing. Then I dropped the bomb on her. "Why did you ask me to join you? I mean, I know I'm good with horses, but Thalia is better with a spear. Spears are more effective in this race, don't you think?"

Her faced darkened. "I just chose you."

I softened up a little. "Come on, Annabeth. We're friends. You can tell me."

She hesitated but eventually told me why she chose me. "Thalia and Luke teamed up for the race. I know there's something happening. I like Luke—no love him, but Thalia has him. You're slow. You probably couldn't pick up on the fact that they liked each other unless you liked Thalia or something."

"Me? Like Thalia?" I asked. Thinking about it, it didn't sound like the best idea. I mean, the daughter of Zeus and the son of Poseidon. That sounded like a big no-no. Sure the girl was my age, pretty and had dark hair, but she was annoying at times. We were like reincarnations of our fathers. We fought, yet got along just fine when we weren't.

I _could_ picture us if we were dating. Trust me, it wouldn't be a pretty picture. Let's just say it involved _a lot_ of lightning, a giant storm and ended with rough, hard se—okay, going a little far.

Anyway, it would be a challenge...definitely.

"Forget it," Annabeth said. "Let's just get back to work."

Just then, I heard some say somewhere behind me, "Come on. Someone has to make fun of him. He can't be that great."

"He beat Ethan! And Luke! He is definitely someone you don't want to mess with."

A girl's voice popped in. "Just shut up. I'll do it. Come on, girls."

"Percy," Annabeth said, knocking me out of my thoughts. "Are you even paying attention to me?"

"Wait," I said quietly. I started forming a long, thin water shape, getting ready as I heard footsteps near us. I noticed Annabeth turn around to look at whoever was coming at us. The female's voice was quite familiar. That's because it was the same girl I'd made pass out last year during Capture the Flag, my first game. She was an Aphrodite girl.

"Hey, Percy," she called out. I stood up slowly and turned around. She had two friends on either side of her. I kept one arm behind my back, the water shape starting to solidify.

"I was just wondering," she said, "if you needed to borrow some eyeliner for your eye. Oh sorry, _eyes_."

Her friends began to laugh, but when I pulled out the water sword that was concealed behind my back and waved it at them like it was a harmless stick. "What did you say?" I said through gritted teeth.

I noticed some of the Hermes campers run away from us, toward the showers and toilets.

The head Aphrodite girl gulped and paled. "Uh. Nice abs?"

"Don't try me," I snarled.

They nodded furiously and strode off quickly.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and all of my anger dissolved again. The water sword in my hand evaporated into water vapor and I sighed. "Why can't they leave me alone, Annabeth? Why does the life of a hero have to be tragic? Can't I just end this now?"

Annabeth shook me. Then she slapped me. "Are you kidding me? What the Hades are you talking about? Don't think that way. Grover's gone. Thalia and Luke like each other. I don't have anybody left!"

She started crying. I wasn't sure whether if it was because she was on her period or if it was because she truly felt alone, but either way, she stepped toward me and hugged me close, like I was her lifeline or something.

It was also a reminder for me that Grover was missing. What kind of friend was I? I forgot about a friend in need and I turned on people just because they go against me. Why was I even still alive?

"Don't listen to them," she sobbed. "It's not your fault you have a monster for a brother."

"He's not a monster," I snapped, despite holding onto her.

She pushed away roughly. "Why are you getting mad at me? Technically, he _is_ a monster."

"So what? That automatically means I deserve to be made fun of? Just because of that?"

"Just forget it," she said, wiping a few tears away. "Let's just get back to working on the chariot."

"You're treating him like he's this horrible thing," I said. "He saved your life."

Annabeth threw down her pencil and stomped up to face me with teary red eyes. "Then maybe you should design a chariot with _him._"

"Maybe I should!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

Then she stormed off before I could say a word about the Golden Fleece.

In frustration and anger, I sent large, rippling waves at the canoers, making a lot of them tip into the lake. I got a lot of disapproving looks from the naiads and angry looks from the canoers, but I didn't care. There was nothing to care about. Everything was going to be destroyed anyway.

Beckendorf and Silena were wrong. I couldn't do this. If all of my closest friends were going to turn against me because Tyson was a Cyclops, I was going to give up all hope. _Let camp die_, I thought relentlessly. _Let all the people suffer. I've been through too much just to get degraded some more. My mom is dead. My little sister, Viola, is dead. Kronos is on the rise. Half of the Olympians hate my guts. My uncles want to kill me. And my best friends turn on my brother just because they've had bad experiences with his species. And they think they've been through bullying._

With that final thought, I returned to my cabin, slammed the door shut and took a long nap.

* * *

For the next few days, I tried keeping my mind off my problems.

I did some more pegasus riding with Silena, but Silena and Beckendorf were also getting kind of distant. However, with them, it wasn't in a bad way. I was happy that they were finally developing the courage to begin getting closer.

Meanwhile, I was avoided anywhere I went. As soon as I arrived at the arena (whenever I wanted to go), people would start shuffling out quickly. It wasn't until the third day that I realized that I was scowling. That was also the day that I realized my anger issues weren't helping the borders of camp whatsoever.

It was the fourth day since I'd fought with Annabeth.

We'd parted ways and I did my best to avoid Thalia and Luke who were now approaching me. It was only now that they paid any attention to me. I deserved attention. Why? Because I knew how to save camp. Sure, I hadn't told anybody except for Travis Stoll, Beckendorf and Silena, but I knew how. I wasn't a monster.

Before lunch on the fourth day, Tyson tagged along with me to ride the "chicken ponies."

But when he got close, they got skittish. I told them telepathically that Tyson wouldn't hurt them, but they didn't seem to believe me. That made Tyson cry.

I led him back down to the forges and the Hephaestus campers—the only campers who weren't afraid of Tyson—took him in again and taught him how to make magical weapons. He stopped crying quickly and began happily working.

I smiled faintly. "At least one of us is having fun," I muttered.

After lunch, I decided to go to the arena. This time, the Ares cabin stayed around me. They were brainless louts, but they had some sort of instinct that told them to stay away from me when I was angry.

I thrashed the Ares campers easily. The only reason why was because I felt like a demon when I fought and I probably looked like one too.

Clarisse was the only Ares camper who put up a good fight. It took a good ten minutes before I beat her. But the reason why it took so long was because I was dead tired from fighting all of her siblings earlier.

When I defeated her, she sneered and said, "I'll get you next time, Jackson."

Despite being taller than me by at least three inches, she didn't intimidate me. "Whatever, Clarisse."

Then she stalked off with her siblings.

After a couple of seconds, I sat down on the ground right in the middle of the arena. I didn't care who was watching but I lied down and kept motionless...or at least, as motionless as I could be.

I felt as depressed as a demigod could be. Trust me, I'd been through more than anyone else could have...right?

I sighed and continued to lay there.

It felt like hours had passed before someone came to tap on my shoulder. I rolled over to face them. It was Thalia.

"What did you do to Annabeth?" she immediately accused.

I snorted and sat up. "So if there's anything wrong with Annabeth, you immediately think it's me? Wow, what a great friend. Oh wait. We're not even friends."

"What are you talking about? We are friends."

"So a friend would pointedly ignore the other because he or she has a monster for a brother?"

Her face darkened. "That's a different story, Percy. You wouldn't understand."

"Oh, totally!" I exclaimed sarcastically. "I wouldn't understand a single fucking reason why you, Luke and Annabeth hate Cyclopes! Because apparently I'm so _stupid_, I can't comprehend the word _idiot_!"

"I told you," she said angrily. "It's something you wouldn't get. You would pass it off as some lame excuse of not liking Tyson. Tyson is nice, but all Cyclopes are deceitful, treacherous—"

"There you go again!" I grabbed a javelin and hurled it at one of the dummies standing in the corner. It pierced the thing's heart. "If Tyson is nice, why would you ignore him? You admitted he is nice!"

"When they grow up, they become deceitful!" She was practically yelling now. Electricity cracked from her fingertips, shooting at the ground. "You don't know Cyclopes because you've never run into any!"

"I _do_ know Cyclopes! I actually know monsters. I know what they are and what they do," I seethed. "Guess who makes half of the camp's weapons and armor? Cyclopes in the forges of my dad's palace."

"And how would you know that?"

"Beckendorf."

"Then you didn't know that!"

"Why don't you think before you act?"

"Why don't you think at all? Oh wait. It's because you _can't_ think!"

Thunder echoed in the sky. Sparks flew from her fingertips dangerously. She looked like she was going to kill me.

"What did you say?" I asked coldly. "Did you call me stupid again?"

"Like you could do anything if I did," she snapped.

"Fine. I'll answer your question. Annabeth is depressed because her friend Grover is missing. She's depressed because she's indecisive about Tyson. She's depressed because she's the head counselor of her cabin and a lot of stress is put into the chariot race. But the most important reason why she's been acting so down is because she likes—no, loves Luke and her _sister_ is practically stealing him away from her. You happy to know why Annabeth is so down?" I let out all of my anger in that outburst and I turned on her.

My weary self took over and my shoulders drooped. "You have no idea what thoughts are passing through my head," I called over my shoulder. "You have no idea what I'm going through. I've always been the target. Things have to change. That's why I can't speak to you right now. Sure, we're friends, but come to me when Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, is back and when Luke Castellan, son of Hermes is back. Then, maybe, we'll see."

I added Luke because I saw him running up to us out of the corner of my eye. Just as I finished the last part, Luke was standing next to Thalia, trying to console her as she stood there, stunned.

"Percy!" Luke called. "What are you talking about?"

"Tell me when Luke Castellan is back. Then we'll see."

"Percy—"

But I ignored him and sadly walked to Half-Blood Hill.

* * *

I watched the dryads come and go, singing to the dying pine tree. Satyrs brought their reed pipes and played nature magic songs, and for a while the pine needles seemed to get fuller. The flowers on the hill smelled a little sweeter and the grass looked greener. But as soon as the music stopped, the sickness crept back into the air. The whole hill seemed to be infected, dying from the poison that had sunk into the tree's roots. The longer I sat there, the angrier I got.

I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one side were the Titans who were probably planning some devious escape to get to Olympus and make it crumble. On the other side was camp. I still loved the place and the important campers were still nice to me (like Beckendorf, Silena, Travis and Connor and Katie). It was just that most made fun of me. There were two sides to camp. The leaders, who were usually nice and forgiving, and the regular campers who were often rude and inconsiderate. The one person who seemed caught in between was Lee Fletcher. He was a good person and had good merits. It was just that he was deciding whether to go with the crowd or stand on his own.

Despite all of that though, I still loved camp and was worried sick about the dying borders.

I looked at my palm and looked at the scar angrily. It was fading, but I could still see it—a white asterisk-shaped wound where a pit scorpion had stung me.

I knew it had to be Ethan Nakamura. There was no one else who could've poisoned the tree. The only problem with that was the fact that most of the people in camp had trusted him because he was so helpful at camp. He lied straight to my face and ended up nearly killing me. I wanted to go out and kill him, but Chiron had ordered me not to. And despite hating having to listen to restrictions, Chiron was my teacher and was far wiser in terms of war planning.

For example, during the American Civil War, Chiron and Abraham Lincoln led the Union (and Greek demigods) to victory over the Confederates (and the other Greek demigods). At least, that's what I perceived from the tale of the fallen warriors of Half-Blood Hill.

Sometimes, when my mind wandered off, I thought about why Chiron always referred to himself on the Union side. Was the Confederate side too horrible to be on for him? But why would he want to go against his own students? Was it because it was the right thing to do?

Once, I even thought of this crazy theory that the Greek gods weren't the only gods in the world. Something Chiron had told me when I had first arrived at camp was that the heart of the West started in Greece and made its way...well, west, toward the United States of America.

_The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps_—_Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on_—_but the same forces, the same gods._

Were there Roman gods? I had read somewhere that Rome had adopted much of the Greek culture and mythology. Could the gods have actual Roman counterparts? More warlike and orderly?

The idea was absurd, but the more I thought about it (which actually wasn't that often), the more it sounded true.

Could the Confederates actually have been Roman demigods? And if so, why did no one ever know about them? I seemed to have a small link to the Roman world, my linguistics including a little bit of Latin. Could it be possible?

In that case, Kronos, the King of the Titans, would be Saturn, a much less overpowered Titan, yet more warlike.

The Romans also had legions, which were these large groups of people who fought together. I imagined Camp Half-Blood trying to work simultaneously with the exact same weapons. The image I got was the Athena and Ares cabins fighting for the front spots, Hermes campers staying in the center and pranking people and all of the Aphrodite campers complaining about being dirty.

The only person I could confront about this was Chiron, and since he wasn't here, I couldn't do anything. Instead, I had to sit next to the dying tree without any friends and guard the camp's borders on my own.

I had to fight off a whole bunch of hellhounds that lurked in the tall grass along the borders of camp. Without any energy to support me, I nearly got killed.

The night before the race, Tyson and I finished our chariot. It was wicked cool. Tyson had made the metal parts in the armory's forges. I'd sanded the wood and put the carriage together. It was blue and white, with wave designs on the sides and a trident painted on the front.

After all that work, it seemed only fair that Tyson would ride shotgun with me, though I knew the horses wouldn't like it, and Tyson's extra weight would slow us down.

As we were turning in for bed, Tyson said, "You are mad?"

I realized I'd been scowling.

"Nah. I'm not mad."

He lay down in his bunk and was quiet in the dark. His body was way too long for his bed. When he pulled up the covers, his feet stuck out the bottom. "I am a monster."

"Don't say that."

"It is okay. I will be a _good _monster. Then you will not have to be mad."

I didn't know what to say. I stared at the ceiling and felt like I was dying slowly, right along with the tree.

"It's just...I never had a half-brother before." I tried to keep my voice from cracking. "It's really different for me. And I'm worried about the camp. And another friend of mine, Grover...he might be in trouble. Thalia hasn't told me anything. I also keep feeling like I should be doing something to help, but I don't know what. You know the Golden Fleece, buddy?"

Tyson said nothing.

"I'm sorry," I told him. "It's not your fault. I'm mad at Poseidon. I feel like he's trying to embarrass me, like he's trying to compare us or something, and I don't understand why."

I heard a deep rumbling sound. Tyson was snoring.

I sighed. "Good night, big guy."

And I closed my eyes, too.

* * *

In my dream, Grover was wearing a wedding dress.

It didn't fit him very well. The gown was too long and the hem was caked with dried mud. The neckline kept falling off his shoulders. A tattered veil covered his face.

He was standing in a dank cave, lit only by torches. There was a cot in one corner and an old-fashioned loom in the other, a length of white cloth half woven on the frame. And he was staring right at me, like I was a TV program he'd been waiting for. "Thank the gods!" he yelped. "Can you hear me?"

My dream-self was slow to respond. I was still looking around, taking in the stalactite ceiling, the stench of sheep and goats, the growling and grumbling and bleating sounds that seemed to echo from behind a refrigerator-sized boulder, which was blocking the room's only exit, as if there were a much larger cavern beyond it.

"Percy?" Grover said. "Please, I don't have the strength to project any better. You _have _to hear me!"

"Grover?" I said. "I thought you would contact Thalia. She's the one having dreams about your troubles."

"Wait, what?" he said surprised. "I've been trying to contact you."

"Why me?"

"Because I'm on an island in the middle of the sea! Thalia wouldn't be any help at all!"

"Wait. Did you say _sea_?"

From behind the boulder, a monstrous voice yelled, "Honeypie! Are you done yet?"

Grover flinched. He called out in falsetto, "Not quite, dearest! A few more days!"

"Bah! Hasn't it been two weeks yet?"

"N-no, dearest. Just five days. That leaves twelve more to go."

The monster was silent, maybe trying to do the math. He must've been worse at arithmetic than I was, because he said, "All right, but hurry! I want to SEEEEE under that veil, heh-heh-heh."

Grover turned back to me. "You have to help me! No time! I'm stuck in this cave. On an island in the sea."

"Yeah, I know!" I called. "_Where_ exactly?"

"I don't know _exactly_. I just went down to Florida and turned left."

"Coeus, Hyperion, Krios or Iapetus?"

"_What_?"

"North, east, south or west?" I repeated. "Don't you know your Titans. They're rising you know."

"I'm not sure. What's left of Florida?"

"Um...Mexico?"

"No, the other way."

"The Bermuda Triangle?"

Grover paled. "Wait, no. I can't be..." He started to chew on the dress. "Percy, you _have_ to come quick. It's a trap! It's the reason no satyr has ever returned from this quest. He's a shepherd, Percy! And he _has _it. Its nature magic is _so _powerful it smells just like the great god Pan! The satyrs come here thinking they've found Pan, and they get trapped and eaten by Polyphemus!"

"Nature magic? Polyphemus the Cyclops?"

"The Cyclops, yeah," he said. "I almost got away in St. Augustine."

"That must've been the dream Thalia had," I mused.

"That means my empathy link didn't work," Grover replied. "Look, this bridal dress is the only thing keeping me alive. He thinks I smell good, but I told him it was just goat-scented perfume. But soon he'll realize what I am. He's only giving me two weeks to finish the bridal train, and he's getting impatient!"

"Wait a minute. This Cyclops thinks you're—"

"Yes!" Grover wailed. "He thinks I'm a lady Cyclops and he wants to marry me!"

Under different circumstances, I might've bursted out laughing, but Grover's voice was deadly serious. He was shaking with fear.

"I'll come rescue you," I promised. "Where are you?"

"The Sea of Monsters." He looked absolutely terrified.

"I told you! I don't know exactly where! And look, Percy...urn, I'm really sorry about this, but this empathy link...well, I had no choice. Our emotions are connected now. If I die..."

"Don't tell me, I'll die too."

"Oh, well, perhaps not. You might live for years in a vegetative state. But, uh, it would be a lot better if you got me out of here."

"Honeypie!" the monster bellowed. "Dinnertime! Yummy yummy sheep meat!"

Grover whimpered. "I have to go. Hurry!"

"Wait! You said 'it' was here. What?"

But his voice was already growing fainter. "The Gold—" Then he was cut off as the dream faded and I woke up with a start.

It was early morning. Tyson was staring down at me, his one big brown eye full of concern.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

His voice sent a chill down my back, because he sounded almost exactly like the monster I'd heard in my dream.

_Polyphemus the _Cyclops.

* * *

I finally comprehended what Grover was trying to say. _The Golden Fleece_. With Grover, I could also steal the Golden Fleece and bring it back to camp. I didn't want recognition (not necessarily), but I just wanted to save camp.

After breakfast, everyone went out to the newly paved chariot race track.

The morning of the race was hot and humid. Fog lay low on the ground like sauna steam. Millions of birds were roosting in the trees—fat gray-and-white pigeons, except they didn't coo like regular pigeons. They made this annoying metallic screeching sound that reminded me of submarine radar.

The racetrack had been built in a grassy field between the archery range and the woods. Hephaestus' cabin had used the bronze bulls, which were completely tame since they'd had their heads smashed in, to plow an oval track in a matter of minutes.

There were rows of stone steps for the spectators— Tantalus, the satyrs, a few dryads, and all of the campers who weren't participating. Mr. D didn't show. He never got up before ten o'clock.

"Right!" Tantalus announced as the teams began to assemble. A naiad had brought him a big platter of pastries, and as Tantalus spoke, his right hand chased a chocolate éclair across the judge's table.

"You all know the rules. A quarter-mile track. Twice around to win. Two horses per chariot. Each team will consist of a driver and a fighter. Weapons are allowed. Dirty tricks are expected. But try not to kill anybody!"

Tantalus smiled at us like we were all naughty children. "Any killing will result in harsh punishment. No s'mores at the campfire for a week!

Now ready your chariots!"

Beckendorf led the Hephaestus team onto the track.

They had a sweet ride made of bronze and iron—even the horses, which were magical automatons like the Colchis bulls. I had no doubt that their chariot had all kinds of mechanical traps and more fancy options than a fully loaded Maserati.

The Ares chariot was blood red, and pulled by two grisly horse skeletons. Clarisse climbed aboard with a batch of javelins, spiked balls, caltrops, and a bunch of other nasty toys.

Apollo's chariot was trim and graceful and completely gold, pulled by two beautiful palominos.

Their fighter was armed with a bow, though he had promised not to shoot regular pointed arrows at the opposing drivers.

The Hermes-Zeus chariot looked like a regular old chariot aside from the lightning bolts carved onto the sides and painted over with an electric blue color. Thalia stared at Annabeth guiltily and Luke looked at me with slight sorrow in his eyes.

They deserved to look that way.

That left two chariots: one driven by Annabeth, and the other by me.

Before the race began, I tried to approach Annabeth and tell her about my dream.

She perked up when I mentioned Grover, but when I told her what he'd said, she seemed to get distant again, suspicious.

"You're trying to distract me," she decided.

"What? No I'm not!"

"Oh, right! Like Grover would just happen to stumble across the _one _thing that could save the camp."

"So you don't believe him?"

She rolled her eyes. "Go back to your chariot, Percy."

"Annabeth. I'm sorry for the other day. I've just been having a rough time. But Grover really is in trouble."

I tried to look as convincing as I could to make sure that Annabeth would believe that Grover was truly in trouble and he _had_ found the one item that could save the camp's borders.

She hesitated. I could tell she was trying to decide whether or not to trust me. Despite our occasional fights, we'd been through a lot together. And I knew she would never want anything bad to happen to Grover.

"Percy, an empathy link is so hard to do. I mean, it's more likely you really were dreaming."

"The Oracle," I said. "We could consult the Oracle."

Annabeth frowned.

Last summer, before my quest, I'd visited the strange spirit that lived in the Big House attic and it had given me a prophecy that came true in ways I'd never expected. The experience had freaked me out for months. Annabeth knew I'd never suggest going back there if I wasn't completely serious.

Before she could answer, the conch horn sounded.

"Charioteers!" Tantalus called. "To your mark!"

"We'll talk later," Annabeth told me, _"after _I win."

As I was walking back to my own chariot, I noticed how many more pigeons were in the trees now—screeching like crazy, making the whole forest rustle. Nobody else seemed to be paying them much attention, but they made me nervous.

Their beaks glinted strangely. Their eyes seemed shinier than regular birds.

Tyson was having trouble getting our horses under control. I had to talk to them a long time before they would settle down.

_He's a monster, lord! _they complained to me.

_He's a son of Poseidon, _I told them. _Just like...well, just like me._

_No! _They insisted. _Monster! Horse-eater! Not trusted!_

_I'll give you sugar cubes at the end of the race, _I said.

_Sugar cubes?_

_Very big sugar cubes. And apples. Did I mention the apples?_

Finally they agreed to let me harness them.

Now, if you've never seen a Greek chariot, it's built for speed, not safety or comfort. It's basically a wooden basket, open at the back, mounted on an axle between two wheels. The driver stands up the whole time, and you can feel every bump in the road. The carriage is made of such light _wood _that if you wipe out making the hairpin turns at either end of the track, you'll probably tip over and crush both the chariot and yourself.

It's an even better rush than skateboarding.

I took the reins and manoeuvred the chariot to the starting line. I gave Tyson a ten-foot pole and told him that his job was to push the other chariots away if they got too close, and to deflect anything they might try to throw at us.

"No hitting ponies with the stick," he insisted.

"No," I agreed. "Or people, either, if you can help it. We're going to run a clean race. Just keep the distractions away and let me concentrate on driving."

"We will win." He beamed.

We are _so _going to lose, I thought to myself, but I _had _to try. I wanted to show the others...well, I wasn't sure what, exactly. That Tyson wasn't such a bad guy? That I wasn't ashamed of being seen with him in public? Maybe that they hadn't hurt me with all their jokes and name-calling?

As the chariots lined up, more shiny-eyed pigeons gathered in the woods. They were screeching so loudly the campers in the stands were starting to take notice, glancing nervously at the trees, which shivered under the weight of the birds.

Tantalus didn't look concerned, but he did have to speak up to be heard over the noise.

"Charioteers!" he shouted. "Attend your mark!"

He waved his hand and the starting signal dropped. The chariots roared to life. Hooves thundered against the dirt. The crowd cheered.

Almost immediately there was a loud nasty _crack! _I looked back in time to see the Apollo chariot flip over.

The Hermes chariot had rammed into it—maybe by mistake, maybe not.

Luke and Thalia pushed on, but before they could make it a dozen seconds, the panicked horses of the Apollo chariot crossed the track diagonally. The Apollo horses crashed into theirs, and the Hermes chariot flipped too, leaving a pile of broken wood and four rearing horses in the dust.

Two chariots down in the first twenty feet. I loved this sport.

I turned my attention back to the front. We were making good time, pulling ahead of Ares, but Annabeth's chariot was way ahead of us.

She was already making her turn around the first post, her javelin man grinning and waving at us, shouting: "See ya!"

The Hephaestus chariot was starting to gain on us, too.

Beckendorf pressed a button, and a panel slid open on the side of his chariot.

"Sorry, Percy!" he yelled. Three sets of balls and chains shot straight toward our wheels.

They would've wrecked us completely if Tyson hadn't whacked them aside with a quick swipe of his pole. He gave the Hephaestus chariot a good shove and sent them skittering sideways while we pulled ahead.

"Nice work, Tyson!" I yelled.

"Birds!" he cried.

"What?"

We were whipping along so fast it was hard to hear or see anything, but Tyson pointed toward the woods and I saw what he was worried about. The pigeons had risen from the trees. They were spiraling like a huge tornado, heading toward the track.

That's when I noticed what they were. "Stymphalian birds," I muttered. Over all of the screeching, I yelled as loud as I could to the people at the stands, "STYMPHALIAN BIRDS! They're going to attack!"

I wasn't sure whether anyone heard me or not, but Annabeth's fighter turned toward the birds. I looked up and saw that they were dive-bombing at the campers. Then people started screaming. Lightning arced from somewhere in the crowd and struck down a whole bunch of the metal-beaked birds.

Soon, Beckendorf was swarmed.

His fighter tried to bat the birds away but he couldn't see anything. The chariot veered off course and plowed through the strawberry fields, the mechanical horses steaming.

In the Ares chariot, Clarisse barked an order to her fighter, who quickly threw a screen of camouflage netting over their basket. The birds swarmed around it, pecking and clawing at the fighter's hands as he tried to hold up the net, but Clarisse just gritted her teeth and kept driving.

Her skeletal horses seemed immune to the distraction. The pigeons pecked uselessly at their empty eye sockets and flew through their rib cages, but the stallions kept right on running.

The spectators weren't so lucky. The birds were slashing at any bit of exposed flesh, driving everyone into a panic. Now that the birds were closer, it was clear they weren't normal pigeons.

Their eyes were beady and evil-looking. Their beaks were made of bronze, and judging from the yelps of the campers, they must've been razor sharp.

"Stymphalian birds!" Annabeth yelled. She slowed down and pulled her chariot alongside mine. "They'll strip everyone to bones if we don't drive them away!"

"Tyson," I said, "we're turning around!"

"Going the wrong way?" he asked.

"Always," I grumbled, but I steered the chariot toward the stands.

Annabeth rode right next to me. She shouted, "Heroes, to arms!" But I wasn't sure anyone could hear her over the screeching of the birds and the general chaos.

I held my reins in one hand and managed to draw Riptide as a wave of birds dived at my face,

their metal beaks snapping. I slashed them out of the air and they exploded into dust and feathers, but there were still millions of them left. One nailed me in the back end and I almost jumped straight out of the chariot.

Annabeth wasn't having much better luck.

The closer we got to the stands, the thicker the cloud of birds became.

Some of the spectators were trying to fight back. The Athena campers were calling for shields. The archers from Apollo's cabin brought out their bows and arrows, ready to slay the menace, but with so many campers mixed in with the birds, it wasn't safe to shoot.

"Too many!" I yelled to Annabeth. "How do you get rid of them?"

"Not with me," Thalia said, hopping into my chariot. "I drained a lot of energy trying to fight those birds, but there must be a giant colony of those things. They coming from everywhere."

I looked at the daughter of Zeus. She had multiple scratches on her arms and bloody nicks on her face where birds had pecked her. All in all, she looked like she'd just fought bloodthirsty birds.

"Plus," she said while stabbing a bird, "they're getting really annoying. Have you ever heard birds screech _Die! Die!_ before?"

"Trust me"—I slashed the beak off of another bird—"pegasi are much more annoying."

"Great guys," Annabeth called. "I'm sure pegasi are more annoying than metal birds, but right now, I don't give a crap! We need to find a way to get rid of these things. Hercules used noise! Brass bells! He scared them away with the most horrible sound he could—"

Her eyes got wide. "Percy. Thalia...Chiron's collection!"

I understood instantly. "You think it'll work?"

"What else do we have? It's our only chance."

She turned to her fighter and was about to say something, but I quickly called out, "Tyson!" The big guy turned to me. "Get out and hit the birds. Roar at them. Scare them away and protect the campers."

He nodded. "Yes, brother."

He leaped out of the chariot and took the long pole with him. He smashed a couple of birds out of the air and saved some Aphrodite campers from having their flesh ripped out. "Stay away, birdie!" he yelled.

Annabeth caught on quickly. She handed her fighter the reins and jumped into my chariot just as easy as Thalia had. She grinned at me. "How did you know I wasn't going to ask him to hold the reins?"

"I think I know you well enough to know what you think," I replied.

"Whatever, Seaweed Brain."

Just then, Clarisse pulled across the finish line, completely unopposed. She seemed to notice for the first time how serious the bird problem was.

When she saw us driving away, she yelled, "You're _running? _The fight is here, cowards!"

She drew her sword and charged for the stands.

I urged our horses into a gallop. The chariot rumbled through the strawberry fields, across the volleyball pit, and lurched to a halt in front of the Big House.

"I'll protect the front," I said. "You two get inside and grab whatever sounds bad."

They didn't stop to acknowledge my orders. They immediately raced inside and went looking for Chiron's terrible music. Just thinking about the horrid music gave me a headache.

"Come here, little birdies," I whispered. "Come here so I can kill you."

For a second, everything immediately around me went silent, noises coming from a far distance. Then, a metallic bird swooped down in front of me. I somersaulted out of the chariot and sliced the beast in half with Riptide.

"We got it!"

Thalia and Annabeth burst out the front entrance of the Big House and leaped into the chariot. I climbed back on and urged the horses to get back to the racetrack as quick as they could.

Down at the track, the chariots were in flames. Wounded campers ran in every direction, with birds shredding their clothes and pulling out their hair, while Tantalus chased breakfast pastries around the stands, every once in a while yelling, "Everything's under control! Not to worry."

We pulled up to the finish line. Annabeth got the boom box ready. I prayed the batteries weren't dead.

Thalia pressed PLAY and started up Chiron's favorite—the _All-Time Greatest Hits of Dean Martin. _Suddenly the air was filled with violins and a bunch of guys moaning in Italian.

The demon pigeons went nuts.

They started flying in circles, running into each other like they wanted to bash their own brains out.

Then they abandoned the track altogether and flew skyward in a huge dark wave.

"Now!" shouted Annabeth. "Archers!"

With clear targets, Apollo's archers had flawless aim.

Most of them could notch five or six arrows at once. Within minutes, the ground was littered with dead bronze-beaked pigeons, and the survivors were a distant trail of smoke on the horizon.

The camp was saved, but the wreckage wasn't pretty. Most of the chariots had been completely destroyed.

Almost everyone was wounded, bleeding from multiple bird pecks. The kids from Aphrodite's cabin were screaming because their hairdos had been ruined and their clothes pooped on.

"See," panted Thalia. "You don't need a daughter of Zeus. I'm exhausted from running and summoning lightning. The worst thing that could happen to me right now is to be assigned to kitchen patrol."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, me too...except for the lightning part...and I'm not _that_ tired."

"Bravo!" Tantalus said suddenly. I turned to him, but he wasn't looking at me, Thalia, or Annabeth. "We have our first winner!" He walked to the finish line and awarded the golden laurels for the race to a stunned-looking Clarisse.

Then he turned and smiled at me. "And now to punish the troublemakers who disrupted this race: kitchen patrol."

I stared at him like he was speaking Japanese or something. "Are you kidding me?"

"He's got no sense of humor," Annabeth said flatly. "He's not joking."

Thalia clutched her head. "Hey, is the world turning upside down? Wait, why is everything yellow? Is it supposed to be yellow?"

Then her eyes closed and she passed out right into my arms.

* * *

**Hey everyone,**

**This is part two of experiment one. It's like a science experiment except with writing. I kind of wish I could work on my poetry so that I can have Apollo say them. Well, then again, Apollo's poetry is pretty bad... Anyway, thanks for all of your support and I hope that you continue to support this story no matter how bad it may be. :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _any_ excerpts taken from Rick Riordan's book _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters._**

**I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	8. Quest Time

**Hello everyone,**

**Thank you all for reading my story, blah, blah, blah. Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts from Rick Riordan's _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters_. I don't like adding large intro's anymore so this will hopefully become shorter and most of the words will truly be the story. And regarding my guess of chapters being shorter this story...doesn't look like it. (This chapter=6000 words. Last/previous chapter=8000 words.)**

**Reviewers for past two chapters:**

Blackcurse11, LyingTruth123, Mundster Madman, redlox2, Chaos Reincarnate, IcyRose66, Slytherin Studios, mithun2389, Justrockzyxxx, chronos the cookie thief, Guest, AlphaOfFanFiction, Paramore101, Phoenix1592, I Love Dolphins, Magicalghostgirl, Wolfking57, krasni, TheKingOfAtlantis & FaTalClanWii.

**With best regards,  
****SharkAttack719**

* * *

**Περσεύς 7**

**Quest Time**

The way Tantalus saw it, the Stymphalian birds had simply been minding their own business in the woods and would not have attacked if Annabeth, Thalia, Tyson and I hadn't disturbed them with our bad chariot driving.

This was so completely unfair, I told Tantalus to go chase a doughnut, which didn't help his mood.

Luke even called up that he was driving the Hermes chariot, not Thalia, but Tantalus would have none of it. Luke continued arguing so instead, he told Luke that he was on stable duty for the rest of the week.

I honestly wanted to stick my sword up his ass and around the corner. Maybe his decency would've been hiding there.

So, unfortunately, we had to obey rules and Annabeth, Tyson, Thalia and I went on kitchen patrol—scrubbing pots and platters all afternoon in the underground kitchen with the cleaning harpies. The harpies washed with lava instead of water, to get that extra-clean sparkle and kill ninety-nine point nine percent of all germs, so Annabeth, Thalia and I had to wear asbestos gloves and aprons.

Tyson didn't mind. He plunged his bare hands right in and started scrubbing, but Annabeth and I had to suffer through hours of hot, dangerous work, especially since there were tons of extra plates. Tantalus had ordered a special luncheon banquet to celebrate Clarisse's chariot victory—a full-course meal featuring country-fried Stymphalian death-bird.

The only good thing about our punishment was that it gave us a common enemy and tons of time to talk about Grover and the Golden Fleece.

I started with Grover and told Thalia my dream which only Annabeth had heard. She looked offended when I got to the part when Grover exclaimed, "Thalia wouldn't help at all!"

There was a good explanation though. He _was _in the middle of the ocean, in some place called the Sea of Monsters. I had no idea where that was.

Annabeth, who had doubted me at first, seemed to believe in my story more and more the more times I persisted that it was true. Then I told them how Grover was located on the island that held the Golden Fleece, the one magical item that could restore camp's borders. I said that I needed their help to get it. I wanted to ask Luke for help too, but I could only bring two. It was also best that someone stayed back with Tyson, even if Luke didn't exactly trust him. He would have to eventually.

Annabeth scraped a plateful of death-bird bones into the lava. Thalia did the exact same. "That means," said Annabeth, "the Gray Sisters were really telling the truth. _The location your friend seeks_. 30, 31, 75, 12."

"But those are meaningless numbers! The Graeae are crazy!" Thalia exclaimed.

"I don't know what the numbers stand for, but they mentioned Jason. Three thousand years ago, they told _him _how to find the Golden Fleece. You _do _know the story of Jason and the Argonauts?" Annabeth asked.

I grinned. "I'm not stupid, you know. Jason was a mortal, not even a proper demigod and that's why Hera liked him."

She blinked. "Really? I didn't even know that."

Thalia stifled some laughter. "Never thought I'd see the day when Annabeth gets outsmarted by Percy Jackson."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. I pouted and whined like a toddler, "I'm not stupid."

Annabeth nodded. "But you're really, I'm mean _really_ slow."

Thalia laughed some more. We are let out some chuckles. I guess it was good to let off a little comic relief. We _were_ washing dishes with _lava_. I was glad Tyson was having fun. He was happily making toy boats out of cups and spoons in the lava.

"So the story went like..." my mind actually blanked for a second and I forgot it.

"I thought you said you know the story?" asked Annabeth.

"I do!" I said. "Just a mind blank. Anyway, um, there were two children of Zeus: Cadmus and Europa. They were about to get offered up as human sacrifices, when they prayed to Zeus to save them. So Zeus sent this magical flying ram with golden wool, which picked them up in Greece and carried them all the way to Colchis in Asia Minor."

Annabeth nodded, but interjected, "Well, actually it carried Cadmus. Europa fell off and died along the way, but that's not important."

"I almost forgot that!" said Thalia.

I frowned. "It was probably important to her."

"The _point_ is," Annabeth said, "when Cadmus got to Colchis, he sacrificed the golden ram to the gods and hung the Fleece in a tree in the middle of the kingdom."

"Yeah! The Fleece brought prosperity to the land. Animals stopped getting sick. Plants grew better. Farmers had bumper crops. Plagues never visited. That's why Jason wanted the Fleece. It can revitalize any land where it's placed. It cures sickness, strengthens nature, cleans up pollution _and_ it could cure the tree of Half-Blood Hill," I said. "Is there even a proper name for the tree?"

"I think people just call it the Tree of Camp Half-Blood," Thalia said. She called over to Tyson and threw a plate like a Frisbee. The big guy looked up, smiled, caught it and dunked it into the lava like he was taking a bath or something and was playing with a toy UFO.

Annabeth nodded. "And it would totally strengthen the borders of Camp Half-Blood. But Percy, the Fleece has been missing for centuries. Tons of heroes have searched for it with no luck."

"But Grover found it," I said. "He went looking for Pan and he found the Fleece instead because they both radiate nature magic. It makes sense, Annabeth. We can rescue him and save the camp at the same time. It's perfect!"

Annabeth hesitated. "A little _too _perfect, don't you think? What if it's a trap?"

I remembered last summer, how Kronos had manipulated our quest. He'd almost fooled us into helping him start a war that would've destroyed Western Civilization.

"What could happen?" I shrugged. "The only thing I could think of is that the Golden Fleece is just a distraction, to make us think we'll be safe and then they could strike at the heart of camp."

"But they can't strike at the heart of the camp, can they?" Thalia asked. "I mean, I guess a respected cabin counselor could die, but that's unlikely."

"No, not heart as in respected campers. Heart as in the center of camp, an invasion route, either from the ground, Hades' territory, or the sky, Zeus' territory," I explained. "They could send, like, paratroopers from the sky, or enter from a secret passage in camp. That's beside the point. The _point_ is Grover is in danger. He found the Golden Fleece. The Golden Fleece could help our camp."

"Percy," she said under her breath, "we'll have to fight a Cyclops. Polyphemus, the _worst _of the Cyclopes. And there's only one place his island could be. The Sea of Monsters."

"Where's that?"

She stared at me like she thought I was playing dumb.

"No, I'm not joking. Where is the Sea of Monsters? I know it's no longer the Mediterranean because Grover said he turned left from Florida..." I looked at Annabeth. "The...the..."

"The what?" asked Thalia. "Wait, no..."

"The Bermuda Triangle," Annabeth finished.

I let that sink in. I guess it wasn't stranger than anything else I'd learned since coming to Camp Half-Blood. "Okay...so at least we know where to look."

"It's still a huge area, Percy. Searching for one tiny island in monster-infested waters—"

"Hey, I'm the son of the sea god. This is my home turf. How hard can it be?"

Thalia pursed her lips. "Oh, I just realized I can't go on the quest, then. Sea of Monsters is made up of the ocean. Ocean is Poseidon's territory. He'll make me feel seasick."

I smirked. "Trust me, he won't. Hades is the one who wants to kill you. But...it would be funny to see you turn green. The next time we're doing something at a high elevation, you can lead us."

Her face tightened and scrunched up in the cute way she always did. "Sure," she said tightly.

Annabeth knit her eyebrows. "We'll have to talk to Tantalus, get approval for a quest. He'll say no."

"Not if we tell him tonight at the campfire in front of everybody. The whole camp will hear. They'll pressure him. He won't be able to refuse."

"Maybe." A little bit of hope crept into Annabeth's voice_. _"We'd better get these dishes done. Hand me the lava spray gun, will you?"

* * *

That night at the campfire, Apollo's cabin led the sing-along.

They tried to get everybody's spirits up, but it wasn't easy after that afternoon's bird attack. We all sat around a semicircle of stone steps, singing half-heartedly and watching the bonfire blaze while the Apollo guys strummed their guitars and picked their lyres.

We _did _all the standard camp numbers: "Down by the Aegean," "I Am My Own Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandpa," "This Land is Minos' Land."

The bonfire was enchanted, so the louder you sang, the higher it rose, changing color and heat with the mood of the crowd. On a good night, I'd seen it twenty feet high, bright purple, and so hot the whole front row's marshmallows burst into the flames. Tonight, the fire was only five feet high, barely warm, and the flames were the color of lint.

Dionysus left early. After suffering through a few songs, he muttered something about how even pinochle with Chiron had been more exciting than this. Then he gave Tantalus a distasteful look and headed back toward the Big House.

I never thought I'd agree with Dionysus about something, or rather, somebody.

When the last song was over, Tantalus said, "Well, that was lovely!"

He came forward with a toasted marshmallow on a stick and tried to pluck it off, real casual-like. But before he could touch it, the marshmallow flew off the stick. Tantalus made a wild grab, but the marshmallow committed suicide, diving into the flames.

"Sir," I said.

Tantalus's eye twitched. "Our kitchen boy has something to say?"

Some of the Ares campers snickered, but I wasn't going to let anybody embarrass me into silence. Besides, I could easily thrash them if provoked. I stood and looked at Annabeth. Then I looked at Thalia and then Luke. Thank the gods, Annabeth and Thalia stood. Luke looked at me confused, but slowly got up as well.

I said, "We have an idea to save the camp."

Dead silence, but I could tell I'd gotten everybody's interest, because the campfire flared bright yellow.

"Indeed," Tantalus said blandly. "Well, if it has anything to do with chariots—"

"The Golden Fleece," I said. "We know where it is."

The flames burned orange. Before Tantalus could stop me, I blurted out my dream about Grover and Polyphemus' island. I thought Annabeth or Thalia would help me out on this but all they did was stare at me, like they were shocked I was talking or something. It would have sounded more convincing (at least in my opinion) from them. I could tell Luke had a fiery gleam in his eyes. I kind of felt bad for choosing to leave him behind.

"The Fleece can save the camp," I concluded. "I'm certain of it."

"Nonsense," said Tantalus. "We don't need saving."

Everybody stared at him until Tantalus started looking uncomfortable.

"Besides," he added quickly, "the Sea of Monsters? That's hardly an exact location. You wouldn't even know where to look."

"Yes, I would," I said.

Annabeth leaned toward me and whispered, "You would?"

I nodded because when Annabeth told me about the Gray Sisters and the numbers, a small bell started ringing in the back of my head. When relating it to the Sea of Monsters and where to find Grover...

"30, 31, 75, 12," I said.

"Ooo-kay," Tantalus said. "Thank you for sharing those meaningless numbers."

"They're sailing coordinates," I said. "Latitude and longitude. I remember being out in Florida when I was younger and when I stepped into the ocean, a whole bunch of numbers popped into my head. 25, 46, 80, 8. That's around Miami Beach. 75 means east. East means Atlantic Ocean, the Bermuda Triangle and the Sea of Monsters."

Even Annabeth looked impressed.

"30 degrees, 31 minutes north, 75 degrees, 12 minutes west. He's right! The Gray Sisters gave us those coordinates. That'd be somewhere in the Atlantic, off the coast of Florida. The Sea of Monsters. We need a quest!"

"Wait just a minute," Tantalus said.

But the campers took up the chant. "We need a quest! We need a quest!"

The flames rose higher.

"It isn't necessary!" Tantalus insisted.

"WE NEED A QUEST! WE NEED A QUEST!"

"Fine!" Tantalus shouted, his eyes blazing with anger. "You brats want me to assign a quest?"

"YES!"

"Very well," he agreed. "I shall authorize a champion to undertake this perilous journey, to retrieve the Golden Fleece and bring it back to camp. Or die trying."

My heart filled with excitement. I wasn't going to let Tantalus scare me. This was what I needed to do. I was going to save Grover and the camp. Nothing would stop me.

"I will allow our champion to consult the Oracle!" Tantalus announced. "And choose two companions for the journey. And I think the choice of champion is obvious."

Tantalus looked at Annabeth and me as if he wanted to flay us alive. "The champion should be one who has earned the camp's respect, who has proven resourceful in the chariot races and courageous in the defense of the camp. _You _shall lead this quest...Clarisse!"

The fire flickered a thousand different colors. The Ares cabin started stomping and cheering, "CLARISSE! CLARISSE!"

Clarisse stood up, looking stunned. Then she swallowed, and her chest swelled with pride. "I accept the quest!"

"Wait!" I shouted. "Grover is my friend. The dream came to _me."_

"Sit down!" yelled one of the Ares campers. "You had your chance last summer!"

"Yeah, he just wants to be in the spotlight again!" another said.

Clarisse glared at me. "I accept the quest!" she repeated. "I, Clarisse, daughter of Ares, will save the camp!"

The Ares campers cheered even louder. Annabeth protested, and the other Athena campers joined in. Everybody else started taking sides—shouting and arguing and throwing marshmallows. Even though I joined in, I thought it was going to turn into a full-fledged s'more war until Tantalus shouted, "Silence, you brats!"

But I was still angry. It didn't matter that the evil aura radiating from Tantalus was as strong as any monster I'd faced. It didn't matter that he could easily punish me again. "Why don't _you_ shut up, you nitwit!" I snarled.

He was basically boiling with rage. He opened his mouth, probably to sentence me to some eternal punishment, but before he could, I sharply turned to Clarisse.

"Fine," I told her. "You can take your pride and go on this quest. But if you do, you're bringing two people of _my_ choice. I know you, Clarisse. You'll leave all of your siblings at camp to protect the tree in case of an attack. You'll go alone. Not this time you're not. You're going to bring Luke and Thalia."

Luke, Annabeth and Thalia turned to me and simultaneously said, "What?"

"Why should I listen to you, runt?" Clarisse sneered, looking like she wanted to kill me as much as Tantalus; but there was that doubt again that was on her face, the little flicker of hesitation.

"Just bring them," I said in a deadly serious tone. "You know they will be helpful to you. If you don't want me or Annabeth, take them. You can't deny them because you don't want them. Judge a person by their merits, not through personal judgement."

"Whatever, Jackson," she snapped, but I could tell she knew I had a point. I struck her where she felt it the most.

Tantalus stared at me coldly. "I'll deal with your punishment later, Perseus. But for now, sit down! I will tell you a ghost story."

I didn't know what he was up to, but we all moved reluctantly back to our seats.

"Once upon a time there was a mortal king who was beloved of the Gods!" Tantalus put his hand on his chest, and I got the feeling he was talking about himself.

"This king," he said, "was even allowed to feast on Mount Olympus. But when he tried to take some ambrosia and nectar back to earth to figure out the recipe—just one little doggie bag, mind you—the gods punished him. They banned him from their halls forever! His own people mocked him! His children scolded him! And, oh yes, campers, he had horrible children. Children—just—like—you."

He pointed a crooked finger at several people in the audience, including me.

"Do you know what he did to his ungrateful children?" Tantalus asked softly. "Do you know how he paid back the gods for their cruel punishment? He invited the Olympians to a feast at his palace, just to show there were no hard feelings. No one noticed that his children were missing. And when he served the gods dinner, my dear campers, can you guess what was in the stew?"

No one dared answer. The firelight glowed dark blue, reflecting evilly on Tantalus's crooked face.

"Oh, the gods punished him in the afterlife," Tantalus croaked. "They did indeed. But he'd had his moment of satisfaction, hadn't he? His children never again spoke back to him or questioned his authority. And do you know what? Rumor has it that the king's spirit now dwells at this very camp, waiting for a chance to take revenge on ungrateful, rebellious children. And so...are there any more complaints, before we send Clarisse off on her quest?"

Silence.

Tantalus nodded at Clarisse. "The Oracle, my dear. Go on."

She shifted uncomfortably, like even _she _didn't want glory at the price of being Tantalus's pet. "Sir—"

"Go!" he snarled.

She bowed awkwardly and hurried off toward the Big House.

"What about you Percy Jackson?" Tantalus asked. "No comments from our dishwasher?"

"Did you eat your children as well? Or did you only feed it to the gods?"

He sneered, barely containing his rage. I swear, that should have sent him over the top. "I could expel you, I should expel you; but I won't, simply because it will be very fun punishing you for the rest of your summers here at Camp Half-Blood. And let me remind everyone—no one leaves this camp without my permission. Anyone who tries...well, if they survive the attempt, they will be expelled forever, but it won't come to that. The harpies will be enforcing curfew from now on, and they are always hungry! Good night, my dear campers. Sleep well."

With a wave of Tantalus's hand, the fire was extinguished, and the campers trailed off toward their cabins in the dark.

I couldn't explain things to Tyson. He knew I was sad (and mad). He knew I wanted to go on a trip and Tantalus wouldn't let me.

"You will go anyway?" he asked.

"I don't know," I admitted. "It would be hard. Very hard."

"I will help."

"No. I—uh, I couldn't ask you to do that, big guy. Too dangerous. There's not enough resources I can bring."

Tyson looked down at the pieces of metal he was assembling in his lap—springs and gears and tiny wires. Beckendorf had given him some tools and spare parts, and now Tyson spent every night tinkering, though I wasn't sure how his huge hands could handle such delicate little pieces.

"What are you building?" I asked.

Tyson didn't answer. Instead he made a whimpering sound in the back of his throat. "Annabeth doesn't like Cyclopes. You...don't want me along?"

"Oh, that's not it," I said half-heartedly. "Annabeth likes you. Really."

He had tears in the corners of his eye.

Tyson folded up his tinkering project in an oilcloth. He lay down on his bunk bed and hugged his bundle like a teddy bear. When he turned toward the wall, I could see the weird scars on his back, like somebody had plowed over him with a tractor. I wondered for the millionth time how he'd gotten hurt.

"Daddy always cared for m-me," he sniffled. "Now...I think he was mean to have a Cyclops boy. I should not have been born."

"Don't talk that way! Poseidon claimed you, didn't he? So...he must care about you...a lot..."

My voice trailed off as I thought about all those years Tyson had lived on the streets of New York in a cardboard refrigerator box. How could Tyson think that Poseidon had cared for him? What kind of dad let that happen to his kid, even if his kid was a monster?

"Tyson...camp will be a good home for you. The others will get used to you. I promise."

Tyson sighed. I waited for him to say something. Then I realized he was already asleep.

I lay back on my bed and tried to close my eyes, but I just couldn't. I was afraid I might have another dream about Grover. If the empathy link was real...if something happened to Grover...would I ever wake up?

The full moon shone through my window. The sound of the surf rumbled in the distance. I could smell the warm scent of the strawberry fields, and hear the laughter of the dryads as they chased owls through the forest. But something felt wrong about the night—the sickness of the tree, spreading across the valley.

Could Clarisse save Half-Blood Hill? I thought the odds were better of me getting a "Best Camper" award from Tantalus. Only if she brings Thalia and Luke, I thought.

I got out of bed and pulled on some clothes. I grabbed a beach blanket and a six-pack of Coke from under my bunk. The Cokes were against the rules. No outside snacks or drinks were allowed, but if you talked to the right guy in Hermes' cabin and paid him a few golden drachma, he could smuggle in almost anything from the nearest convenience store.

Sneaking out after curfew was against the rules, too. If I got caught I'd either get in big trouble or be eaten by the harpies. But I wanted to see the ocean. I always felt better there. My thoughts were clearer. I left the cabin and headed for the beach.

I spread my blanket near the surf and popped open a Coke. For some reason sugar and caffeine always calmed down my hyperactive brain.

I tried to decide what to do to save the camp, but nothing came to me. I wished Poseidon would talk to me, give me some advice or something.

"Hey," a voice interrupted me. I turned around to see Luke and Thalia standing there.

"Hey," I said back. "What's up you guys?" So much had gone through my head in the past few hours I forgot that I was still mad at them for distrusting Tyson so much.

Luke stepped forward. "First off, I want to say sorry. I know I shouldn't have judged Tyson just because he was a Cyclops. It's just that, Thalia, Annabeth and I ran into a Cyclops once and he tricked us. Then he almost made human stew, but Annabeth saved us all."

"That was a really rushed story."

"Don't have enough time," said Luke. "Anyway, the second thing is that I want to thank you. I was worried that I was just going to stay in Camp Half-Blood for the rest of my life doing nothing. Now I get to go on a quest to save Grover and the Golden Fleece. I—I'm glad I met you, Percy. I can't imagine what things would have been like if Thalia and I hadn't got stuck in the casino."

"Wait. Clarisse actually asked you to join?"

He nodded. "But she says there's something off about the prophecy. There was something about needing friends, just like you said, but she keeps muttering something about 'being wrong' and I don't know why."

I shrugged. "Don't ask me."

"Anyway, I better be going. I'll leave Thalia to her goodbye and..." he looked at her sadly, "and...never mind."

He walked off quickly and bluntly, which kind of bothered me. Luke was quiet and distanced lately, but he never used to be so eager to get away from us. It bothered me that maybe something was happening to him that nobody knew about.

Thalia turned to me, her face full of regret. "I'm really sorry, Percy. I—I just—"

"It's all right, Thalia. I forgive you and Luke and Annabeth," I said. "Everything will be all right."

She smiled. "Thanks, Percy. And also, tell Annabeth...tell her that I can give Luke to her, if she wants. She's my little sister and I want her to be happy."

"What about your _own_ happiness?" I asked.

"Well, maybe one day I can find someone better than Luke, though that'll be a little difficult because Luke is—"

"Amazing," I finished with a grin. "I know."

She laughed and sighed. "I thought this was going to be a whole lot harder."

"What? Are you calling me mean?"

"No, it's just that you don't seem very forgiving sometimes," she explained. "You're always so nice and kind, it's just hard to believe you've also got a cold side that shuts out all bad and gives harsh punishments to those who anger you. You'd save an enemy demigod, but you'd destroy a Titan with no regrets. That's kind of the way you act."

I turned back to the ocean. "Sure, but that's me, isn't it? I'm like the ocean. Sometimes, I'm calm, but if I stay too calm, I will eventually turn into a storm. You know the saying "calm before a storm"? I'm like that. Plus, the ocean is unpredictable. You never know what might happen. It's just me."

Thalia nodded and sat down next to me. "You know—" she started to speak.

She was interrupted as she turned to me when she spoke and I turned to her. Our noses tickled each other and she stopped talking. The pace of my breath increased and my heart started beating irregularly. It wasn't a situation where I was "in love" with Thalia, but more of a nervous energy release. I looked into her eyes which looked sharp and electric.

Hormones released in my body and I went crazy. Before I knew what was happening, I suddenly couldn't breathe the ocean air through my mouth, as if someone were blocking it. That's when I realized Thalia and were kissing..._kissing_.

We broke apart and stared at each other in shock. For five seconds, we were silent, listening to the waves pound on the shore. Then at the same time, we accused "impulse."

"That was impulsive," breathed Thalia, though she was still staring at me weirdly. No doubt I was looking at her the same way. "I didn't—I _do_...let's just blame the hormones."

I nodded numbly. "Sure."

I heard a loud clap of thunder and a sudden wave rise and splash against the sand—hard. Uh-oh.

With that, she walked away and I was left sitting on the beach by myself, pondering over...

"What the fuck just happened?" I asked myself.

"It'll always be a mystery to me," said someone next to me.

Standing right next to me was a guy in nylon running shorts and a New York City Marathon T-shirt. He was slim and fit, with salt-and-pepper hair and a sly smile.

"Hermes?" I felt like a helpless fish out of water. I felt like I was flopping on the sand, dying. Did every god and goddess see that?

"No, but I'm sure it would've been hilarious if everyone did see it," Hermes said. "And yes, I'm Hermes. Who else would look like the genius who invented the internet?"

"Um, you know the internet was made by _scientists_ who wanted to communicate with each other?"

"I was _one_ of them. I was the one who started with the idea. Hephaestus was another. What a genius programmer that guy is. I swear, if machines were like girls, he'd be bedding every girl on the planet. He sure knows how to work them."

"Okay. So why are you here?"

He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a cell phone going off in his pocket.

The jogger sighed. He pulled out his phone and it glowed with a bluish light. When he extended the antenna, two creatures began writhing around it—green snakes, no bigger than earthworms.

He checked his LCD display and cursed. "I've got to take this. Just a sec..." Then into the phone: "Hello?"

He listened. The mini-snakes writhed up and down the antenna right next to his ear.

"Yeah," the jogger said. "Listen—I know, but...I don't care if he _is _chained to a rock with vultures pecking at his liver, if he doesn't have a tracking number, we can't locate his package...A gift to humankind, great...You know how many of those we deliver—Oh, never mind. Listen, just refer him to Eris in customer service. I gotta go."

"Okay," Hermes said. "I'm going to make this quick because I can never get a break _anywhere_. What do you intend to do about the quest? Will you go, or will you stay?

"I—I don't have permission to go."

"No, indeed. Will that stop you?"

"Depends on if we have the right materials," I said. "I'm not going to go into a sea full of monsters with this." I pointed down at my clothing and the pack of Coke.

"We?"

"Yeah. Annabeth and Tyson would come, obviously."

"What an interesting young man," Hermes mused. He smiled. "Martha, may I have the first package, please?"

Martha opened her mouth...and kept opening it until it was as wide as my arm. She belched out a stainless steel canister—an old-fashioned lunch box thermos with a black plastic top. The sides of the thermos were enameled with red and yellow Ancient Greek scenes—a hero killing a lion; a hero lifting up Cerberus, the three-headed dog.

"That's Hercules," I said. "But how—"

"Never question a gift," Hermes chided. "This is a collector's item from _Hercules Busts Heads. _The first season."

_"Hercules Busts Heads?"_

"Great show." Hermes sighed. "Back before Hephaestus-TV was all reality programming. Of course, the thermos would be worth much more if I had the whole lunch box—"

_Or if it hadn't been in Martha's mouth, _George added.

_I'll get you for that. _Martha began chasing him around the caduceus.

"Wait a minute," I said. "This is a gift?"

"One of two," Hermes said. "Go on, pick it up."

I almost dropped it because it was freezing cold on one side and burning hot on the other. The weird thing was, when I turned the thermos, the side facing the ocean—north—was always the cold side...

"It's a compass!" I said.

Hermes looked surprised. "Very clever. I never thought of that. But its intended use is a bit more dramatic. Uncap it, and you will release the winds from the four corners of the earth to speed you on your way. Not now! And please, when the time comes, only unscrew the lid a tiny bit. The winds are a bit like me—always restless. Should all four escape at once...ah, but I'm sure you'll be careful. And now my second gift. George?"

_She's touching me, _George complained as he and Martha slithered around the pole.

"She's _always _touching you," Hermes said. "You're intertwined. And if you don't stop that, you'll get knotted again!"

The snakes stopped wrestling.

George unhinged his jaw and coughed up a little plastic bottle filled with chewable vitamins.

"You're kidding," I said. "Are those Minotaur-shaped?"

Hermes picked up the bottle and rattled it. "The lemon ones, yes. The grape ones are Furies, I think. Or are they hydras? At any rate, these are potent. Don't take one unless you really, really need it."

"How will I know if I really, really need it?"

"You'll know, believe me. Nine essential vitamins, minerals, amino acids...oh, everything you need to feel yourself again."

He tossed me the bottle.

"Um, thanks," I said. "But Lord Hermes, why are you helping me?"

He sighed. "Remember what I told you long ago about you and Luke getting into trouble? He's going into the Sea of Monsters. I already broke rules by sending him a dream message, I can't risk to help him anymore. _You_, the daughter of Athena _and_ your Cyclops friend must help him. I fear without your help, he will perish. I can't be certain as May had that vision when I wasn't there."

"The vision lady who was beautiful, but took the curse of the Oracle and now...is _different_, May?" I made sure I chose my words carefully. I didn't want to anger the god.

He nodded and didn't seem offended at all.

"And you, Percy," Hermes said, "have a shorter deadline than you realize to complete your quest. Your friends should be coming right about...now."

I heard Annabeth's voice calling my name from the sand dunes. Tyson, too, was shouting from a little bit farther away.

"I hope I packed well for you," Hermes said. "I do have some experience with travel."

He snapped his fingers and three yellow duffel bags appeared at my feet.

"Waterproof, of course. If you ask nicely, your father should be able to help you reach the ship."

"Ship?"

Hermes pointed. Sure enough, a big cruise ship was cutting across Long Island Sound, its white-and-gold lights glowing against the dark water.

"Wait," I said. "I don't understand any of this. I haven't even agreed to go! And being _this_ prepared isn't what I meant."

"I'd make up your mind in the next five minutes, if I were you," Hermes advised. "That's when the harpies will come to eat you. Now, good night, cousin, and dare I say it? May the gods go with you."

He opened his hand and the caduceus flew into it.

_Good luck, _Martha told me.

_Bring me back a rat, _George said.

The caduceus changed into a cell phone and Hermes slipped it into his pocket.

He jogged off down the beach. Twenty paces away, he shimmered and vanished, leaving me alone with a thermos, a bottle of chewable vitamins, and five minutes to make an impossible decision.

* * *

**Hey everyone,**

**This is part two of experiment one. It's like a science experiment except with writing. I kind of wish I could work on my poetry so that I can have Apollo say them. Well, then again, Apollo's poetry is pretty bad... Anyway, thanks for all of your support and I hope that you continue to support this story no matter how bad it may be. :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _any_ excerpts taken from Rick Riordan's book _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters._**

**I'm sorry for those who wanted some drastic change in this story compared to the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan, but I like keeping it closer. Trust me, later on there will be some parts that never happened in the real series, mainly because Percy has more guts from growing up on the streets. He doesn't take sh*t from anyone and is...different. But that will be later.**

**The "Perlia" kiss is entirely purposeful. It will either set the breaking point, or making point of the couple. Readers, prepare to find out which decision I make...at the end of the next book. :P**

**I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	9. We Board the Princess Andromeda

**Hello everyone,**

**Thank you all for reading my story, blah, blah, blah. Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts from Rick Riordan's _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters_. Short filler chapter.**

**Thanks to reviewers:**

chronos the cookie thief, Wolfking57, redlox2, krasni, Drewdragon, Guest, Mundster Madman, LyingTruth123, monkeyface123, Cosmic Avatar & FaTaLClanWii.

**With best regards,  
****SharkAttack719**

* * *

**Περσεύς 8**

**We Board the **_**Princess Andromeda**_

I was staring at the waves when Annabeth and Tyson found me.

"What's going on?" Annabeth asked. "I heard you calling for help!"

"Me, too!" Tyson said. "Heard you yell, 'Bad things are attacking!'"

"I didn't call you guys," I said. "I'm fine."

"But then who ..." Annabeth noticed the three yellow duffel bags, then the thermos and the bottle of vitamins I was holding. "What—"

"Just listen," I said. "We don't have much time."

I told them about my conversation with Hermes. By the time I was finished, I could hear screeching in the distance—patrol harpies picking up our scent.

"Percy," Annabeth said, "we have to do the quest."

"I know."

"So, what are you waiting for? We can't fail. We need you because of your fishy powers."

"Fishy powers?" I raised an eyebrow. It wasn't often you heard Annabeth say, "Fishy powers." It was actually quite humorous.

"Whatever. Let's just go!" She looked back toward camp. "We don't have much time."

The sound of the harpies was getting louder by the second.

"I want to go," Tyson said.

Annabeth shut her eyes so she couldn't look at my stern look. Thalia had pleaded forgiveness. Luke had apologized, but Annabeth hadn't; I apologized to her. "Percy—"

The harpies screeched again.

"No time," I said. "Tantalus will punish him if he stays. We're bringing him along."

I looked at Tyson and nodded my approval. He smiled, but I couldn't help but feel self doubt. Sure I was defending Tyson from all of the bullies, but I also had a couple of problems with the big guy. He was still a young Cyclops and I could easily see him panicking when he catches a glimpse of a monster, ending up killing all of us. All I had seen from him pointed in that direction. All of the bullying he'd received made him cry and run away. Could he stay quiet when facing monsters?

However, I'd seen the guy's strength and it was incredible. It was as if I were facing off against an entire army of monsters at once...except I couldn't attack the guy. I wouldn't attack any of my friends, even if other friends told me to. I needed a legitimate reason to attack them.

Another factor was that the sound of the harpies was getting closer...

"Just a warning, Percy," Annabeth said, trying to keep calm. "We're heading to Polyphemus' Island. Polyphemus is an S-i-k...a C-y-k..."

She stamped her foot in frustration. As smart as she was, Annabeth was dyslexic, too. We could've been there all night while she tried to spell Cyclops.

"You know what I mean!"

"Yeah. I think it's C-y-c...l-o...p-s."

Annabeth stared at me. "Let's just figure out how we're going to get to that ship."

I looked across the waters toward the giant cruise ship and stared at the white lights. "Hermes said my dad would help."

"Well then, Seaweed Brain? What are you waiting for?"

I'd always had a hard time calling on my father recently, or praying, or whatever you want to call it, but I stepped into the waves.

"Urn, Dad?" I called. "How's it going?"

"Percy!" Annabeth whispered. "We're in a hurry!"

"We need your help," I called a little louder. "We need to get to that ship, like, before we get eaten and stuff, so..."

At first, nothing happened. Waves crashed against the shore like normal. The harpies sounded like they were right behind the sand dunes. Then, about a hundred yards out to sea, three white lines appeared on the surface. They moved fast toward the shore, like claws ripping through the ocean.

As they neared the beach, the surf burst apart and the heads of three white stallions reared out of the waves.

Tyson caught his breath. "Fish ponies!"

He was right, in a way. As the creatures pulled themselves onto the sand, I saw that they were only horses in the front; their back halves were silvery fish bodies, with glistening scales and rainbow tail fins.

"Hippocampi," I said.

Annabeth admired the creatures. "They're beautiful."

The nearest one whinnied in appreciation and nuzzled Annabeth.

"We'll admire them later," I said. "Come on!"

"There!" a voice screeched behind us. "Bad children out of cabins! Snack time for lucky harpies!"

Five of them were fluttering over the top of the dunes—plump little hags with pinched faces and talons and feathery wings too small for their bodies. They reminded me of miniature cafeteria ladies who'd been crossbred with dodo birds. They weren't very fast, thank the gods, but they were vicious if they caught you.

"Tyson!" I said. "Grab a duffel bag!"

He was still staring at the hippocampi with his mouth hanging open, "Tyson!"

"Uh?"

"Come on!"

With Annabeth's help I got him moving. We gathered the bags and mounted our steeds. Poseidon must've known Tyson was one of the passengers, because one hippocampus was much larger than the other two—just right for carrying a Cyclops.

"Giddyup!" I said. My hippocampus turned and plunged into the waves. Annabeth's and Tyson's followed right behind.

The harpies cursed at us, wailing for their snacks to come back, but the hippocampi raced over the water at the speed of Jet Skis. The harpies fell behind, and soon the shore of Camp Half-Blood was nothing but a dark smudge. I wondered if I'd ever see the place again.

But right then I had other problems.

The cruise ship was now looming in front of us—our ride toward Florida and the Sea of Monsters.

Riding the hippocampus was even easier than riding a pegasus.

We zipped along with the wind in our faces, speeding through the waves so smooth and steady I hardly needed to hold on at all.

As we got closer to the cruise ship, I realized just how huge it was. I felt as though I were looking up at a building in Manhattan. The white hull was at least ten stories tall, topped with another dozen levels of decks with brightly lit balconies and portholes. The ship's name was painted just above the bow line in black letters, lit with a spotlight. It took me a few seconds to decipher it: _PRINCESS ANDROMEDA._

Attached to the bow was a huge masthead—a three-story-tall woman wearing a white Greek chiton, sculpted to look as if she were chained to the front of the ship. She was young and beautiful, with flowing black hair, but her expression was one of absolute terror. Why anybody would want a screaming princess on the front of their vacation ship, I had no idea.

I remembered the myth about Andromeda and how she had been chained to a rock by her own parents as a sacrifice to a sea monster. Maybe she'd gotten too many F's on her report card or something.

Anyway, my name sake, Perseus, had saved her just in time and turned the sea monster to stone using the head of Medusa.

_That _Perseus always won. That's why my mom had named me after him, even though he was a son of Zeus and I was a son of Poseidon.

The original Perseus was one of the only heroes in the Greek myths who got a happy ending. The others died—betrayed, mauled, mutilated, poisoned, or cursed by the gods.

My mom (the only thought that could bring me to tears) had hoped I would inherit Perseus' luck. Judging by how my life was going so far, I wasn't real optimistic.

"How do we get aboard?" Annabeth shouted over the noise of the waves, but the hippocampi seemed to know what we needed. They skimmed along the starboard side of the ship, riding easily through its huge wake, and pulled up next to a service ladder riveted to the side of the hull.

"You first," I told Annabeth.

She slung her duffel bag over her shoulder and grabbed the bottom rung. Once she'd hoisted herself onto the ladder, her hippocampus whinnied a farewell and dove under water. Annabeth began to climb. I let her get a few rungs up, then followed her.

Finally it was just Tyson in the water. His hippocampus was treating him to 360° aerials and backward ollies, and Tyson was laughing so hysterically, the sound echoed up the side of the ship.

"Tyson, shhh!" I said. "Come on, big guy!"

"Can't we take Rainbow?" he asked, his smile fading.

The hippocampus whinnied as if he liked his new name.

I stared at Tyson. He made such good friends with the hippocampi I couldn't believe he'd been shunned out in every other place he'd ever been to. He was so carefree and happy, it sometimes made me jealous. Why couldn't I be like that? Instead, I was the first-in-line for the prophecy that would decide the fate of Olympus, both of my uncles wanted to kill me and I had almost died at least a hundred times in the past five years.

"Um, we have to go," I said. "Rainbow ... well, he can't climb ladders."

Tyson sniffled. He buried his face in the hippocampus' mane. "I will miss you, Rainbow!"

The hippocampus made a neighing sound I could've sworn was crying.

"Maybe we'll see him again sometime," I suggested.

"Oh, please!" Tyson said, perking up immediately. "Tomorrow!"

I didn't make any promises, but I finally convinced Tyson to say his farewells and grab hold of the ladder. With a final sad whinny, Rainbow the hippocampus did a backflip and dove into the sea.

The ladder led to a maintenance deck stacked with yellow lifeboats. There was a set of locked double doors, which Annabeth managed to pry open with her knife and a fair amount of cursing in Ancient Greek.

I figured we'd have to sneak around, being stowaways and all, but after checking a few corridors and peering over a balcony into a huge central promenade lined with closed shops, I began to realize there was nobody to hide from.

I mean, sure it was the middle of the night, but we walked half the length of the boat and met no one. We passed forty or fifty cabin doors and heard no sound behind any of them.

"It's a ghost ship," I murmured.

"No," Tyson said, fiddling with the strap of his duffel bag. "Bad smell."

Annabeth frowned. "I don't smell anything."

"Cyclopes are like satyrs," I said. "They can smell monsters."

Tyson nodded nervously. Now that we were away from Camp Half-Blood, the Mist had distorted his face again. Unless I concentrated very hard, it seemed that he had two eyes instead of one.

"Okay," Annabeth said. "So what exactly do you smell?"

"Something bad," Tyson answered.

"Great," Annabeth grumbled. "That clears it up."

We came outside on the swimming pool level. There were rows of empty deck chairs and a bar closed off with a chain curtain. The water in the pool glowed eerily, sloshing back and forth from the motion of the ship.

Above us fore and aft were more levels—a climbing wall, a putt-putt golf course, a revolving restaurant, but no sign of life.

And yet...I sensed something familiar. Something dangerous. I had the feeling that if I weren't so tired and burned out on adrenaline from our long night, I might be able to put a name to what was wrong.

"We need a hiding place," I said. "Somewhere safe to sleep."

"Sleep," Annabeth agreed wearily.

We explored a few more corridors until we found an empty suite on the ninth level. The door was open, which struck me as weird.

There was a basket of chocolate goodies on the table, an iced-down bottle of sparkling cider on the nightstand, and a mint on the pillow with a handwritten note that said: _Enjoy your cruise!_

We opened our duffel bags for the first time and found that Hermes really had thought of everything—extra clothes, toiletries, camp rations, a Ziploc bag full of cash, a leather pouch full of golden drachmas. He'd even managed to pack Tyson's oilcloth with his tools and metal bits, and Annabeth's cap of invisibility, which made them both feel a lot better.

"I'll be next door," Annabeth said. "You guys _don't _drink or eat anything."

"You think this place is enchanted?"

She frowned. "I don't know. Something isn't right. Just...be careful."

We locked our doors.

Tyson crashed on the couch. He tinkered for a few minutes on his metalworking project—which he still wouldn't show me—but soon enough he was yawning. He wrapped up his oilcloth and passed out.

I lay on the bed and stared out the porthole. I thought I heard voices out in the hallway, like whispering.

I knew that couldn't be. We'd walked all over the ship and had seen nobody. But the voices kept me awake. They reminded me of my trip to the Underworld—the way the spirits of the dead sounded as they drifted past.

Finally my weariness got the best of me. I fell asleep...and had my worst dream yet this year.

I was standing in a cavern at the edge of an enormous pit. I knew the place too well. The entrance to Tartarus. And I recognized the cold laugh that echoed from the darkness below.

_If it isn't the young hero. _The voice was like a knife blade scraping across stone. _On his way to another great victory._

I wanted to shout at Kronos to leave me alone. I wanted to draw Riptide and strike him down. But I couldn't move. And even if I could, how could I kill something that had already been destroyed—chopped to pieces and cast into eternal darkness?

_Don't let me stop you, _the titan said. _Perhaps this time, when you fail, you'll wonder if it's worthwhile slaving for the gods._

_How exactly _has _your father shown his appreciation lately?_

His laughter filled the cavern, and suddenly the scene changed.

It was a different cave—Grover's bedroom prison in the Cyclops's lair.

Grover was sitting at the loom in his soiled wedding dress, madly unraveling the threads of the unfinished bridal train.

"Honeypie!" the monster shouted from behind the boulder.

Grover yelped and began weaving the threads back together.

The room shook as the boulder was pushed aside. Looming in the doorway was a Cyclops so huge he made Tyson look vertically challenged. He had jagged yellow teeth and gnarled hands as big as my whole body. He wore a faded purple T-shirt that said WORLD SHEEP EXPO 2001. He must've been at least fifteen feet tall, but the most startling thing was his enormous milky eye, scarred and webbed with cataracts. If he wasn't completely blind, he had to be pretty darn close.

"What are you doing?" the monster demanded.

"Nothing!" Grover said in his falsetto voice. "Just weaving my bridal train, as you can see."

The Cyclops stuck one hand into the room and groped around until he found the loom. He pawed at the cloth. "It hasn't gotten any longer!"

"Oh, um, yes it has, dearest. See? I've added at least an inch."

"Too many delays!" the monster bellowed. Then he sniffed the air. "You smell good! Like goats!"

"Oh." Grover forced a weak giggle. "Do you like it? It's _Eau de Chevre. _I wore it just for you."

"Mmmm!" The Cyclops bared his pointed teeth. "Good enough to eat!"

"Oh, you're such a flirt!"

"No more delays!"

"But dear, I'm not done!"

"Tomorrow!"

"No, no. Ten more days."

"Five!"

"Oh, well, seven then. If you insist."

"Seven! That is less than five, right?"

"Certainly. Oh yes."

The monster grumbled, still not happy with his deal, but he left Grover to his weaving and rolled the boulder back into place.

Grover closed his eyes and took a shaky breath, trying to calm his nerves.

"Hurry, Percy," he muttered. "Please, please, please!"

I woke to a ship's whistle and a voice on the intercom— some guy with an Australian accent who sounded way too happy.

"Good morning, passengers! We'll be at sea all day today. Excellent weather for the poolside mambo party! Don't forget million-dollar bingo in the Kraken Lounge at one o'clock, and for our _special guests, _disemboweling practice on the Promenade!"

"Good morning, passengers! We'll be at sea all day today. Excellent weather for the poolside mambo party! Don't forget million-dollar bingo in the Kraken Lounge at one o'clock, and for our _special guests,_ disemboweling practice on the Promenade!" he repeated.

I sat up in bed. "What did he say?"

Tyson groaned, still half asleep. He was lying face down on the couch, his feet so far over the edge they were in the bathroom. "The happy man said...bowling practice?"

I hoped he was right, but then there was an urgent knock on the suite's interior door. Annabeth stuck her head in—her blond hair in a rat's nest.

_"Disemboweling _practice?"

Once we were all dressed, we ventured out into the ship and were surprised to see other people. A dozen senior citizens were heading to breakfast. A dad was taking his kids to the pool for a morning swim. Crew members in crisp white uniforms strolled the deck, tipping their hats to the passengers.

Nobody asked who we were. Nobody paid us much attention. But there was something wrong.

As the family of swimmers passed us, the dad told his kids: "We are on a cruise. We are having fun."

"Yes," his three kids said in unison, their expressions blank. "We are having a blast. We will swim in the pool."

They wandered off.

"Good morning," a crew member told us, his eyes glazed. "We are all enjoying ourselves aboard the _Princess Andromeda. _Have a nice day." He drifted away.

"Percy, this is weird," Annabeth whispered. "They're all in some kind of trance."

Then we passed a cafeteria and saw our first monster. It was a hellhound—a black mastiff with its front paws up on the buffet line and its muzzle buried in the scrambled eggs. It must've been young, because it was small compared to most—no bigger than a grizzly bear.

The weird thing was: a middle-aged couple was standing in the buffet line right behind the devil dog, patiently waiting their turn for the eggs. They didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary.

"Not hungry anymore," Tyson murmured.

Before Annabeth or I could reply, a reptilian voice came from down the corridor, "Ssssix more joined yesssterday."

Annabeth gestured frantically toward the nearest hiding place—the women's room—and all three of us ducked inside.

I was so freaked out it didn't even occur to me to be embarrassed. Something—or more like _two _somethings—slithered past the bathroom door, making sounds like sandpaper against the carpet.

"Yesss," a second reptilian voice said. "He drawssss them. Ssssoon we will be sssstrong."

The things slithered into the cafeteria with a cold hissing that might have been snake laughter. Then I recognized the voices. _Dracaena_.

Annabeth looked at me. "We have to get out of here."

"You think I _want _to be in the girls' restroom?"

"I mean the ship, Percy! We have to get off the ship."

"Smells bad," Tyson agreed. "And dogs eat all the eggs. Annabeth is right. We must leave the restroom and ship."

I shuddered. If Annabeth and Tyson were actually _agreeing _about something, I figured I'd better listen.

Then I heard another voice outside—one that chilled me worse than any monster's.

"—only a matter of time. Don't push me, Agrius!"

It was Ethan, beyond a doubt. I could never forget his voice.

"I'm not pushing you!" another guy growled. His voice was deeper and even angrier than Ethan's. "I'm just saying, if this gamble doesn't pay off—"

"It'll pay off," Ethan snapped. "They'll take the bait. Now, come, we've got to get to the admiralty suite and check on the casket."

Their voices receded down the corridor.

Tyson whimpered. "Leave now?"

Annabeth and I exchanged looks and came to a silent agreement.

"We can't," I told Tyson.

"We have to find out what Ethan is up to," Annabeth agreed. "And if possible, we're going to beat him up, bind him in chains, and drag him to Mount Olympus."

* * *

**Hey everyone,**

**This is part two of experiment one. It's like a science experiment except with writing. I kind of wish I could work on my poetry so that I can have Apollo say them. Well, then again, Apollo's poetry is pretty bad... Anyway, thanks for all of your support and I hope that you continue to support this story no matter how bad it may be. :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _any_ excerpts taken from Rick Riordan's book _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters._**

**I'm sorry for those who wanted some drastic change in this story compared to the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan, but I like keeping it closer. Trust me, later on there will be some parts that never happened in the real series, mainly because Percy has more guts from growing up on the streets. He doesn't take sh*t from anyone and is...different. But that will be later.**

**I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	10. I Have a Bad Family Reunion

**Hello everyone,**

**Thank you all for reading my story, blah, blah, blah. Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts from Rick Riordan's _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters_.**

**Thanks to the reviewers:**

Mundster Madman, redlox2, chornos the cookie thief, RedNebulosity, Die hard fan (guest), Study (guest), krasni & monkeyface123.

**With best regards,  
****SharkAttack719**

* * *

**Περσεύς 9**

**I Have a Bad Family Reunion**

Annabeth volunteered to go alone since she had the cap of invisibility, but I convinced her it was too dangerous. Either we all went together, or nobody went.

"Nobody!" Tyson voted. "Please?"

But in the end he came along, nervously chewing on his huge fingernails. We stopped at our cabin long enough to gather our stuff. We figured whatever happened, we would _not _be staying another night aboard the zombie cruise ship, even if they did have million-dollar bingo.

I made sure Riptide was in my pocket and the vitamins and thermos from Hermes were at the top of my bag. I didn't want Tyson to carry everything, but he insisted, and Annabeth told me not to worry about it. Tyson could carry three full duffel bags over his shoulder as easily as I could carry a backpack.

We sneaked through the corridors, following the ship's YOU ARE HERE signs toward the admiralty suite. Annabeth scouted ahead invisibly. We hid whenever someone passed by, but most of the people we saw were just glassy-eyed zombie passengers.

As we came up the stairs to deck thirteen, where the admiralty suite was supposed to be, Annabeth hissed, "Hide!" and shoved us into a supply closet.

I heard a couple of guys coming down the hall.

"You see that Aethiopian drakon in the cargo hold?" one of them said.

The other laughed. "Yeah, it's awesome."

My blood turned to ice. I recognized the second guy's voice. Last year, he'd been afraid of me, but he'd helped me find Silena while I was helping her and Beckendorf by being their messenger. I never thought he'd join the Titans. What did Ethan do?

Annabeth was still invisible, but she squeezed my arm hard.

"I hear they got two more coming," Chris said. "They keep arriving at this rate, oh, man—no contest!"

The voices faded down the corridor.

"That was Chris Rodriguez!"

Annabeth took off her cap and turned visible. "You remember—from Cabin Eleven."

I nodded grimly. A sudden memory came back. I remembered his face, which looked like any other Hermes camper—upturned eyebrows, a sarcastic smile, and that Hermes gleam in his eyes. He was undetermined, yet the Hermes cabin took him in like family. I swear, he had to have been Hermes' kid.

"What's another camper doing here?" Annabeth asked, clearly troubled.

Realization hit me and I scowled. "Hermes never claimed him."

"What?!"

"He's been too busy watching Luke, he didn't even claim some of his own kids." I wasn't _trying_ to make Hermes angry, especially because he gave us all of our stuff, but that was pretty selfish, only thinking about one kid.

I noticed Annabeth look to the side a little bit, but otherwise, she stayed silent.

We kept going down the corridor. I didn't need maps anymore to know I was getting close to Ethan. I sensed something cold and unpleasant—the presence of evil.

"Percy." Annabeth stopped suddenly. "Look."

She stood in front of a glass wall looking down into the multistory canyon that ran through the middle of the ship. At the bottom was the Promenade—a mall full of shops—but that's not what had caught Annabeth's attention.

A group of monsters had assembled in front of the candy store: a dozen Laistrygonian giants like the ones who'd attacked me with dodgeballs, two hellhounds, and a few Scythian Dracaenae.

The monsters made a semicircle around a young guy in Greek armor who was hacking on a straw dummy. A lump formed in my throat when I realized the dummy was wearing an orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. As we watched, the guy in armor stabbed the dummy through its belly and ripped upward. Straw flew everywhere. The monsters cheered and howled.

Annabeth stepped away from the window. Her face was ashen.

"Come on," I told her, trying to sound braver than I felt. "The sooner we find Ethan the better."

At the end of the hallway were double oak doors that looked like they must lead somewhere important. When we were thirty feet away, Tyson stopped. "Voices inside."

"You can hear that far?" I asked.

Tyson closed his eye like he was concentrating hard. Then his voice changed, becoming a husky approximation of Ethan's.

"—the prophecy ourselves. The fools won't know which way to turn."

Before I could react, Tyson's voice changed again, becoming deeper and gruffer, like the other guy we'd heard talking to Ethan outside the cafeteria. "You really think the old horseman is gone for good?"

Tyson laughed Ethan's laugh. "They can't trust him. Not with the skeletons in _his _closet. The poisoning of the tree was the final straw."

Annabeth shivered. "Stop that, Tyson! How do you do that? It's creepy."

"Skeletons?" I was basically trembling with rage.

Tyson opened his eye and regarded Annabeth puzzled. "What? Just listening."

"Keep going," I said, trying to keep my cool. "What else are they saying?"

Tyson closed his eye again.

He hissed in the gruff man's voice: "Quiet!" Then Ethan's voice, whispering: "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Tyson said in the gruff voice. "Right outside."

Too late, I realized what was happening.

I just had time to say, "Run!" when the doors of the stateroom burst open and there was Ethan, flanked by two hairy giants armed with javelins, their bronze tips aimed right at our chests.

"Well," Ethan said with a crooked smile. "If it isn't my two favorite cousins. Come right in."

* * *

The stateroom was beautiful, and it was horrible.

The beautiful part: huge windows curved along the back wall, looking out over the stern of the ship. Green sea and blue sky stretched all the way to the horizon. A Persian rug covered the floor. Two plush sofas occupied the middle of the room, with a canopied bed in one corner and a mahogany dining table in the other. The table was loaded with food—pizza boxes, bottles of soda, and a stack of roast beef sandwiches on a silver platter.

The horrible part: on a velvet dais at the back of the room lay a ten-foot-long golden casket. A sarcophagus, engraved with Ancient Greek scenes of cities in flames and heroes dying grisly deaths. Despite the sunlight streaming through the windows, the casket made the whole room feel cold.

"Well," Ethan said, spreading his arms proudly. "A little nicer than Cabin Eleven, huh?"

He hadn't changed much. He still wore Celestial bronze armor and carried a helmet and sword with him, but his face had gotten much more weary, as if becoming Kronos' servant came with a price. The only part of his face that hadn't change at least a little was his right eye. It still gleamed brightly with that Hermes look, the only sign that he was still human and not some heartless monster. The black eyepatch that covered his left eye was still there but it looked more worn out.

"Sit," he told us. He waved his hand and three dining chairs scooted themselves into the center of the room.

None of us sat.

Ethan's large friends were still pointing their javelins at us. They looked like twins, but they weren't human. They stood about eight feet tall, for one thing, and wore only blue jeans, probably because their enormous chests were already shag-carpeted with thick brown fur. They had claws for fingernails, feet like paws. Their noses were snout like, and their teeth were all pointed canines.

I recognized them alright. They were Agrius and Oreius. Let's just say their story was tragic.

"Where are my manners?" Ethan said smoothly. "These are my assistants, Agrius and Oreius. Perhaps you've heard of them."

I said nothing. Despite the javelins pointed at me, it wasn't the bear twins who scared me.

It was Ethan. It sounded ridiculous in a way, but I'd spent most of my life scared of a fat walrus I could have easily beat in a fight. Ethan was the only sword fighter that could actually disarm me in a fight, though I always beat him at camp. He had only defeated me once. His swordplay was matched to someone like Ares, though not as good. I figured if I could thrash the god of war, I could thrash Ethan, but there was just something about him that was unsettling.

"You don't know Agrius and Oreius' story?" Ethan asked. "Their mother...well, it's sad, really. Aphrodite ordered the young woman to fall in love. She refused and ran to Artemis for help. Artemis let her become one of her maiden huntresses, but Aphrodite got her revenge. She bewitched the young woman into falling in love with a bear. When Artemis found out, she abandoned the girl in disgust. Typical of the gods, wouldn't you say? They fight with one another and the poor humans get caught in the middle.

The girl's twin sons here, Agrius and Oreius, have no love for Olympus. They like half-bloods well enough, though..."

"For lunch," Agrius growled. His gruff voice was the one I'd heard talking with Ethan earlier.

"Hehe! Hehe!" His brother Oreius laughed, licking his fur-lined lips. He kept laughing like he was having an asthmatic fit until Ethan and Agrius both stared at him.

"Shut up, you idiot!" Agrius growled. "Go punish yourself!"

Oreius whimpered. He trudged over to the corner of the room, slumped onto a stool, and banged his forehead against the dining table, making the silver plates rattle.

Ethan acted like this was perfectly normal behavior. He made himself comfortable on the sofa and propped his feet up on the coffee table. "Well, Percy, we let you survive another year. I hope you appreciated it. How are Thalia and Luke? How's school?"

"You poisoned the pine tree."

Ethan sighed. "Right to the point, eh? Okay, sure I poisoned the tree. So what?"

"So what?!" Annabeth looked like she was about to explode. "_You_," she said with distaste, "poisoned camp's trees just so you could what? Invade?"

"Oh, it's a lot more complicated than that, Ms. Chase," Ethan said smiling. "It's so complicated, I doubt you would be able to comprehend what will happen."

Annabeth was furious. "You did _not_ just call me stupid. You _did not_ just call me stupid!"

I put a hand on her shoulder, but gave Ethan a sharp glare. "Calm down, Annabeth. He's trying to make you angry. Don't fall into his trap." I turned to him. "What's the point of all of this? Destroy camp?"

"Like I said, it's a much more complicated plan than that," Ethan said. "But why would I tell you the plan anyway? That would just be foolish. I _will _tell you something, though. I wanted to kill you. Your death would mean the Titan Lord to rise faster. There would be no threat against us."

I clenched my fists. "Scared?"

Ethan smiled humorlessly. "But milord had other plans. I now know why he is called the Crooked One. He knows plans inside out and creates multiple backups. He has convinced me to keep you alive, Percy. You should be grateful to him."

"He'll never be grateful to a _Titan!_" Annabeth spat. "He already defeated one!"

"Ah, yes, Coeus." Ethan laughed. "That fool is in hiding. Milord already knows of his betrayal and his defeat to Percy here. So that's why I'm here to change you for the better, Percy."

"Change me for the better?"

Annabeth seemed to realize what he meant and she turned to me. "He's going to try to turn you to the Titans' side. Don't listen to him!"

"Shut up!" yelled Ethan. "Don't you realize Percy has been neglected by his own family the same way I was?" He turned to me. "Your uncles. Do they not want to kill you? Or do they? You saw Chris Rodriguez earlier. His own father neglected him just because _Luke_ is his pride and joy. He's using you, Percy. You think he likes you? No, it's only because he wants Luke protected. Athena hates you just because you're Poseidon's son. Artemis hates you just because you're a male. Aphrodite thinks you're just a story!"

I stared at him. The horrifying truth was that he was right. All of those things were true.

"And worst of all—Poseidon." He looked at me sympathetically. "Did you ever wish you weren't born? Did you ever wish you could have just been a different person, not born in this lifetime? He brings you misfortune and terror to your life. Is it not endangered anywhere you go?"

I kept silent.

Annabeth looked at me worriedly. "Percy...you aren't seriously..."

I pursed my lips and looked at Ethan coldly. "You can't convince me to join Kronos, Ethan. The gods may not be the best deities out there but they're a whole lot better than the Titans. I know my priorities."

He sighed. "That's a pity. I had hoped you would have been more calm to this. If only you'd understand what was coming."

"_I_ understand that you want to destroy camp," Annabeth snapped. "You're a monster!"

"Speak for yourself," he snapped back. "You're travelling with a monster!"

"Hey!" I said. "Don't insult him, you retarded fuckface!"

I saw his face twitch, but he kept his eyes trained on Annabeth. "The gods have blinded you Annabeth. Just like the way they've blinded Percy. Can't you imagine a world without them, Annabeth? What good is that ancient history you study? Three thousand years of baggage! The West is rotten to the core. It has to be destroyed. Join me! We can start the world anew. We could use your intelligence, Annabeth."

"Because you have none of your own!"

His eyes narrowed. "You deserve better than tagging along on some hopeless quest to save the camp. Half-Blood Hill will be overrun by monsters within the month. The heroes who survive will have no choice but to join us or be hunted to extinction. You really want to be on a losing team ... with company like this?"

He pointed to Tyson.

"I said, don't insult him!"

"Remember Chris Rodriguez? His father was taken away from him because of his father's pride and joy. Would you care to see what would happen to Hermes if we took away his pride and joy?"

Silence enveloped us and Ethan stared at us expectantly. Slowly, it dawned on me that he meant...

"Luke would never join you!" Annabeth screamed appalled. "He promised he wouldn't!"

"Promises are never kept, daughter of Athena," said Ethan. "Unless sworn upon the River Styx. But don't worry. Luke hasn't joined us...yet."

"He'll never join you!" she screamed, refusing to believe Luke was capable of turning to Kronos' side.

"And Percy!" he exclaimed. "I heard your father claimed this big guy here." He made a gesture toward Tyson.

"Wait, what?" I must've looked really surprised because Ethan laughed.

"Yes, Percy, I know all about that. And your plan to find the Fleece. I can't believe I never thought of getting the Fleece. Turns out you aren't as stupid as you seem to let on. I never thought Percy Jackson would have been able to figure out coordinates and actually_ know_ where they are. What were they again...30, 31, 75, 12? You see, I still have friends at camp who keep me posted."

"Spies, you mean."

He shrugged. "You can never trust your friends, no matter how innocent they seem." He sighed. "How many insults from your father can you stand, Percy? You think he's grateful to you? You think Poseidon cares for you any more than he cares for this monster?"

Tyson clenched his fists and made a rumbling sound down in his throat.

Ethan just chuckled. "The gods are so using you, Percy. Do you have any idea what's in store for you if you reach your sixteenth birthday? Has Chiron even _told _you the prophecy?"

I froze. _Sixteenth birthday?_

I mean, I knew Chiron had received a prophecy from the Oracle many years ago. I knew part of it was about me. But, _if _I reached my sixteenth birthday? I didn't like the sound of that.

"Like I said, I know my priorities. The gods aren't the best—not by a long shot—but they're a hell lot better than the Titans," I said. "You just haven't figured that out. Kronos is filling your head with false hopes and dreams. He's using _you_ as much as the gods are using me. You had so much potential and everyone at camp liked you. Chiron said you were the most trustworthy camper. _That's_ why he told you the prophecy."

His face softened for a moment before he sneered. "Lies and trickery. Ain't gonna cut it, Perce. I'm actually kinda surprised you know how to deceive people into thinking false facts. You would totally be a good person to have on our side."

"Kronos is deceiving all of those around him," I said. "I know you know this. Monsters and Titans around him are afraid of him. That's why you are afraid to defect back. I know you."

Ethan stood angrily. "You don't know me at all! You're a fool!"

Tyson smashed the nearest dining chair to splinters. "Percy is not a fool!"

Before I could stop him, he charged Ethan. His fists came down toward Ethan's head—a double overhead blow that would've knocked a hole in titanium—but the bear twins intercepted. They each caught one of Tyson's arms and stopped him cold. They pushed him back and Tyson stumbled. He fell to the carpet so hard the deck shook.

"Too bad, Cyclops," Ethan said. "Looks like my grizzly friends together are more than a match for your strength. Maybe I should let them—"

"Look," I cut in. "The minor gods can be saved. I _can_ get them respect. The minor gods _are_ respected, in fact. You're just overlooking those facts. If you look at the humble campers, they recognize that—"

"_Humble? Humble!_" he roared. "_No!_ The campers who haven't been claimed know that their parents are being neglected back up on Olympus. Either that, or their parents are too fucking lazy to give a shit about them. The campers who haven't been claimed realize that the gods have been doing a terrible job running the West. The campers who haven't been claimed realize that our lord will overthrow the usurpers called the gods and have joined us in this righteous cause! I want Olympus torn down brick by brick, just like Kronos. Everything will turn to rubble. Each time a half-blood joins us, the Olympians grow weaker and we grow stronger. _He_ grows stronger."

Ethan pointed to the gold sarcophagus.

My blood chilled when I realize what was inside the box. The room seemed to dip in temperature. "Whoa, you don't mean—"

"Yes." Ethan nodded. "He is re-forming. Little by little, we're calling his life force out of the pit. With every recruit who pledges our cause, another small piece appears—"

"That's disgusting!" Annabeth said.

Ethan sneered at her. "Your mother was born from Zeus's split skull, Annabeth. I wouldn't talk. Soon there will be enough of the titan lord so that we can make him whole again. We will piece together a new body for him, a work worthy of the forges of Hephaestus."

"You're insane," Annabeth said.

"Join us and you'll be rewarded. We have powerful friends, sponsors rich enough to buy this cruise ship and much more. Percy, you can have power, fame—whatever you want. Annabeth, you can realize your dream of being an architect. You can build a monument to last a thousand years. A temple to the lords of the next age!"

"Go to Tartarus," she said.

Ethan sighed. "A shame."

He picked up something that looked like a TV remote and pressed a red button. Within seconds the door of the stateroom opened and two uniformed crew members came in, armed with nightsticks. They had the same glassy-eyed look as the other mortals I'd seen, but I had a feeling this wouldn't make them any less dangerous in a fight (though they weren't that dangerous anyway).

"Ah, good, security," Ethan said, "I'm afraid we have some stowaways."

"Yes, sir," they said dreamily.

Ethan turned to Oreius. "It's time to feed the Aethiopian drakon. Take these fools below and show them how it's done."

Oreius grinned stupidly. "Hehe! Hehe!"

"Let me go, too," Agrius grumbled. "My brother is worthless. That Cyclops—"

"Is no threat," Ethan said. He glanced back at the golden casket, as if something were troubling him. "Agrius, stay here. We have important matters to discuss."

"But—"

"Oreius, don't fail me. Stay in the hold to make sure the drakon is properly fed."

Oreius prodded us with his javelin and herded us out of the stateroom, followed by the two human security guards.

As I walked down the corridor with Oreius' javelin poking me in the back, I thought about what Ethan had said—that the bear twins _together _were a match for Tyson's strength. But maybe separately…

Then again, why would he allow the stupid twin to feed us? Something didn't seem right.

We exited the corridor amidships and walked across an open deck lined with lifeboats. I knew the ship well enough to realize this would be our last look at sunlight. Once we got to the other side, we'd take the elevator down into the hold, and that would be it.

I looked at Tyson and said, "Now."

Thank the gods, he understood. He turned and smacked Oreius thirty feet backward into the swimming pool, right into the middle of the zombie tourist family.

"Ah!" the kids yelled in unison. "We are _not _having a blast in the pool!"

One of the security guards drew his nightstick, but Annabeth knocked the wind out of him with a well-placed kick. The other guard ran for the nearest alarm box.

"Stop him!" Annabeth yelled.

I was lucky that I was able to run fast. Swiftly, I knocked his feet out from under him and stepped on a soft place with as much force as I could.

"Lifeboat," Annabeth said, pointing to the nearest one.

We quickly got the cover off. Annabeth and Tyson tried working with the release pulley but they were having no luck. After a little bit, I heard noises and shuffling, like the movement of security guards.

"Um, guys," I said. "I think we _might_ be having some company."

"Well, why don't you try working with this impossible piece of crap?" Annabeth said.

Just then, a door burst open and security guards started swarming the deck, pushing aside tourists as they made their way toward us. They quickly swarmed the deck, seemingly coming out of nowhere. I didn't know how they knew we were escaping, but I didn't want to know. This ship now gave me an eerie feeling and I wanted to get off this thing.

"Get in!" I called. I uncapped Riptide and backed into the boat.

"Do you know how to launch this thing?" she asked.

"Nope, but I know how to cut rope."

The lifeboat was hanging over the ship, high above the water. Then I cut the ropes and we free-fell toward the ocean.

* * *

**Hey everyone,**

**This is part two of experiment one. It's like a science experiment except with writing. I kind of wish I could work on my poetry so that I can have Apollo say them. Well, then again, Apollo's poetry is pretty bad... Anyway, thanks for all of your support and I hope that you continue to support this story no matter how bad it may be. :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _any_ excerpts taken from Rick Riordan's book _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters._**

**I'm sorry for those who wanted some drastic change in this story compared to the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan, but I like keeping it closer. Trust me, later on there will be some parts that never happened in the real series, mainly because Percy has more guts from growing up on the streets. He doesn't take sh*t from anyone and is...different. But that will be later.**

**I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	11. We Hitch a Ride With Dead Confederates

**Hello everyone,**

**Thank you all for reading my story, blah, blah, blah. Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts from Rick Riordan's _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters_.**

**Thanks to the reviewers:**

RedNebulosity, monkeyface123, SONxOFxCHAOS, chronos the cookie thief, redlox2, serratoroceanic & angellyx13.

**With best regards,  
****SharkAttack719**

* * *

**Περσεύς 10**

**We Hitch a Ride With Dead Confederates**

"Thermos!" I screamed as we hurtled toward the water.

_"What?" _Annabeth must've thought I'd lost my mind.

She was holding on to the boat straps for dear life, her hair flying straight up like a torch.

But Tyson understood. He managed to open my duffel bag and take out Hermes's magical thermos without losing his grip on it or the boat.

I grabbed the thermos and hoped I was doing the right thing. "Hang on!"

"I _am _hanging on!" Annabeth yelled.

"Tighter!"

I hooked my feet under the boat's inflatable bench, and as Tyson grabbed Annabeth and me by the backs of our shirts, I gave the thermos cap a quarter turn.

Instantly, a white sheet of wind jetted out of the thermos and propelled us sideways, turning our downward plummet into a forty-five-degree crash landing.

The wind seemed to laugh as it shot from the thermos, like it was glad to be free.

As we hit the ocean, we bumped once, twice, skipping like a stone, then we were whizzing along like a speed boat, salt spray in our faces and nothing but sea ahead.

I heard a wail of outrage from the ship behind us, but we were already out of weapon range. The _Princess Andromeda _faded to the size of a white toy boat in the distance, and then it was gone.

As we raced over the sea, Annabeth and I tried to send an Iris-message to Chiron. We figured it was important we let somebody know what Ethan was doing, and we didn't know who else to trust. Plus, Luke and Thalia would find out when we caught up to them...wherever the hell they were.

The wind from the thermos stirred up a nice sea spray that made a rainbow in the sunlight—perfect for an Iris-message—but our connection was still poor. When Annabeth threw a gold drachma into the mist and prayed for the rainbow goddess to show us Chiron, his face appeared all right, but there was some kind of weird strobe light flashing in the background and rock music blaring, like he was at a dance club.

We told him about sneaking away from camp, and Luke and the _Princess Andromeda _and the golden box for Kronos's remains, but between the noise on his end and the rushing wind and water on our end, I'm not sure how much he heard.

"Percy," Chiron yelled, "you have to watch out for—"

His voice was drowned out by loud shouting behind him—a bunch of voices whooping it up like Comanche warriors.

"What?" I yelled.

"Curse my relatives!" Chiron ducked as a plate flew over his head and shattered somewhere out of sight.

"Percy, if you _do _get the Fleece—"

"Yeah, baby!" somebody behind Chiron yelled. "Woo-hoooooo!"

The music got cranked up, subwoofers so loud it made our boat vibrate.

"—Miami," Chiron was yelling. "I'll try to keep watch—"

Our misty screen smashed apart like someone on the other side had thrown a bottle at it, and Chiron was gone.

An hour later we spotted land—a long stretch of beach lined with high-rise hotels. The water became crowded with fishing boats and tankers. A coast guard cruiser passed on our starboard side, then turned like it wanted a second look. I guess it isn't every day they see a yellow lifeboat with no engine going a hundred knots an hour, manned by three kids.

"That's Virginia Beach!" Annabeth said as we approached the shoreline. "Oh my gods, how did the _Princess Andromeda _travel so far overnight? That's like—"

"Five hundred and thirty nautical miles," I said.

She stared at me. "How did you know that?"

"Perfect bearings at sea," I shrugged. "It's no big deal."

Annabeth thought about it for a moment. "Hey, what's our position?"

"36 degrees, 44 minutes north, 76 degrees, 2 minutes west," I said immediately.

"Wow," Annabeth marveled. "That is _so_ cool. Can you do it in rivers and lakes?"

I thought about it for a moment before remembering something. "Uh, Annabeth. My dad is the god of the _seas_, not _water_."

"Your dad _is_ the gods of the waters," Annabeth countered, "but I agree that his main domain is the ocean."

"Well, at least I'm half correct," I said.

Before either of us could say anything, Tyson tapped my shoulder. "Other boat is coming."

I looked back. The coast guard vessel was definitely on our tail now. Its lights were flashing and it was gaining speed.

"We can't let them catch us," I said. "They'll ask too many questions."

"Keep going into Chesapeake Bay," Annabeth said. "I know a place we can hide."

Suddenly, the name _Chesapeake_ rang a bell in my head. A dream I'd had a couple years ago included that name. It was Luke and Thalia who had said that name. They had spoke of it like it was a safehouse or something.

So, I risked loosening the cap a little more, and a fresh burst of wind sent us rocketing around the northern tip of Virginia Beach into Chesapeake Bay. The coast guard boat fell farther and farther behind. We didn't slow down until the shores of the bay narrowed on either side, and I realized we'd entered the mouth of a river.

I could feel the change from salt water to fresh water. Suddenly I was tired and frazzled, like I was coming down off a sugar high. I didn't know where I was anymore, or which way to steer the boat. It was a good thing Annabeth was directing me.

"There," she said. "Past that sandbar."

I turned to her. "Is it a half-blood hideout?"

She nodded tiredly, seemingly more tired than I was. I was about to tell her to brighten up when I remembered something that was _completely_ **irrelevant **to the quest: Annabeth still hadn't apologized to me about Tyson.

I guess I was still miffed about that, but honestly, I didn't really care. I didn't have the energy, nor did I have the passion for fighting for Tyson anymore. Let her dislike the Cyclops. She would know I was mad anyway.

We veered into a swampy area choked with marsh grass. I beached the lifeboat at the foot of a giant cypress.

Vine-covered trees loomed above us. Insects chirred in the woods. The air was muggy and hot, and steam curled off the river. Basically, it wasn't Manhattan, a beach, or Florida. And I didn't like it.

"Come on," Annabeth said. "It's just down the bank." The she looked back at the lifeboat. "Maybe we should cover up the lifeboat. We don't want to draw attention."

"Sure, whatever," I said bluntly.

Annabeth froze and gave me a look. Her eyes raced at a million miles an hour trying to decipher why I was a little rude all of a sudden. Don't get me wrong, part of it was about Annabeth, but in fact, most of my hate was directed toward the swampiness of the area. I'd travelled through cities, along the sides of highways and up in the northern forests of Canada, but I never really stayed in a swampy area. I'd never even been to the everglades.

After a couple seconds, she shook her head and started covering the boat with branches. Tyson and I helped her.

When we were done, Tyson and I followed Annabeth along the shore, our feet sinking in red mud. A snake slithered past my shoe and then decided to make a loop around it. It looked up at me and regarded me with passive eyes. Then it slithered and disappeared into the grass.

"Not a good place," Tyson said. He swatted the mosquitoes that were forming a buffet line on his arm.

After another few minutes, Annabeth said, "Here."

All I saw was a patch of brambles. Then Annabeth moved aside a woven circle of branches, like a door, and I realized I was looking into a camouflaged shelter.

The inside was big enough for three, even with Tyson being the third. The walls were woven from plant material, like a Native American hut, but they looked pretty waterproof. Stacked in the corner was everything you could want for a campout—sleeping bags, blankets, an ice chest, and a kerosene lamp. There were demigod provisions, too—bronze javelin tips, a quiver full of arrows, an extra sword, and a box of ambrosia. The place smelled musty, like it had been vacant for a long time.

"So, you, Thalia and Luke made this place?" I asked.

"Yeah," Annabeth replied quietly.

"Ladies first," I said. I gestured toward the blankets.

She gave me a cold stare. What did I say? She picked up on my attitude quickly. She sighed discontentedly and threw herself on the blankets. Then she started going through her duffel bag. Her body language made it clear she was mad at me.

"Tyson?" I said. "Would you mind scouting around outside? Like, look for a wilderness convenience store or something?"

"Convenience store?"

"Yeah, for snacks. Powdered donuts or something. Just don't go too far."

"Powdered donuts," Tyson said earnestly. "I will look for powdered donuts in the wilderness." He headed outside and started calling, "Here, donuts!"

Once he was gone, I sat down across from Annabeth. She unsheathed her knife and started cleaning the blade with a rag.

Annabeth asked the first question. "Why are you mad at me?"

I sighed. "I could ask the same thing."

"You were mad at me first," she countered.

"So what?" I threw my hands up. "Just because I'm mad first means I have to explain first? You know very well why I'm mad Annabeth. Things have been delayed because of certain events, but that doesn't change anything. I hate this part of Virginia, as well, which only fuels my anger." I gave her a cold, hard stare. "Tell me _why_ you dislike Cyclopes, and maybe I'll be sympathetic to you. If not, this will be a very difficult quest."

"Are you threatening me?" she said, slightly moving her hand with the knife.

"You know I could disarm you. Even in here."

She sighed and dropped the knife. "I guess you should know. It would save a whole lot of trouble. The reason why Thalia almost died was because of a Cyclops. The night Grover was escorting us to camp, he got confused, took some wrong turns. The worst turn was into a Cyclops' lair in Brooklyn. Grover was always panicky and nervous, but it's hard to blame him. Grover is probably the bravest and big-hearted satyr I've ever met. But anyway, the story."

She picked up her knife and examined it. "This Cyclops, he tricked us. He managed to split us up inside this maze of corridors in an old house in Flatbush. And he could sound like anyone, Percy. Just the way Tyson did aboard the _Princess Andromeda. _He lured us, one at a time. Thalia thought she was running to save Luke. Luke thought he heard me scream for help. And me...I was alone in the dark. I was eleven years old, but I heard terrorizing screams, like the screaming of the Underworld, but a thousand times worse. I couldn't even find the exit because I was so terrified."

Annabeth looked at me with small eyes. She looked like she was back in that Cyclops' lair. "Do you know what a spider sounds like, Percy? My paranoia of those _things_ makes me remember the sound they make when they crawl. It's so faint, that regular people wouldn't be able to hear it, but I can. I used to have nightmares about spiders and the Cyclops seemed to know exactly what to do. He practically imitated my dream and I ended up screaming. By that time, it was too late. Thalia, Luke and Grover had been captured."

My gaze softened. My time on the streets made me think nothing could be as terrifying as a giant monster that could kill me in a matter of seconds. But now, hearing Annabeth's story made me think about whether being all strong and powerful really meant anything.

I looked down at myself. I'd spent years on the streets learning how to live on my own and becoming stronger in terms of my power. Was that all just useless? What would happen if my mother had never died? Would I be like I am today?

Annabeth brushed the hair out of her face. "I remember finding the main room. There were bones all over the floor. And there were Thalia and Luke and Grover, tied up and gagged, hanging from the ceiling like smoked hams. The Cyclops was starting a fire in the middle of the floor. I drew my knife, but he heard me. He turned and smiled. He spoke, and somehow he knew my dad's voice, just like he knew of my dreams. He said, 'Now, Annabeth, don't you worry. I love you. You can stay here with me. You can stay forever.'"

"What did you do?" I asked quietly.

"I stabbed him in the foot."

I nodded appreciatively. "That took a lot of guts. Did you take him out on your own or—"

"Thalia killed him. No mercy."

I looked at Annabeth's knife. "I guess that's why you would have a disliking for Cyclopes. But that doesn't mean you can automatically hate every single Cyclopes because of that. Judge a book by its content, not by its cover."

Annabeth just lay down on the blankets one more time and closed her eyes.

It was quiet for a couple minutes.

"Uh, Annabeth," I said. "Do you want some—"

I was interrupted when the door of the hut creaked open. Tyson crawled in.

"Powdered donuts!" he said proudly, holding up a pastry box.

Annabeth sat up and stared at him. "Where did you get that? We're in the middle of the wilderness. There's nothing around for—"

"Two-hundred feet," Tyson said. "Monster Donut shop—just over the hill!"

* * *

"This is bad," Annabeth muttered.

We were crouching behind a tree, staring at the donut shop in the middle of the woods. It looked brand new, with brightly lit windows, a parking area, and a little road leading off into the forest, but there was nothing else around, and no cars parked in the lot. We could see one employee reading a magazine behind the cash register. That was it. On the store's marquis, in huge black letters that even I could read, it said: MONSTER DONUT.

A cartoon ogre was taking a bite out of the _O _in _MONSTER. _The place smelled good, like fresh-baked chocolate donuts.

"This shouldn't be here," Annabeth whispered. "It's wrong."

I stared at her. "Well, noooo. A donut shop in the middle of nowhere totally belongs here."

"This isn't the middle of nowhere," she whispered. "And keep your voice down. I have a feeling that a monster is around here."

"Uh, why would there be a monster here?" I asked.

Annabeth just shook her head. Quietly, she looked around for any signs of a monster. "Some children of Hermes found out how stores spread so quickly around the country in the 1950s."

"Whoa, backtrack." I made a _time-out_ gesture. "Stores spreading quickly?"

"Isn't there a store like this back in New York?" she whisper-asked.

Now that I thought about it, I remembered that there was one of these stores just down the road from "Mr. Brunner's" apartment. "Actually...I _do_ remember a store like this. We never went in there, though."

"Exactly. The children of Hermes in the 1950s found that they breed—

She froze, and so did I.

I heard the sound: a scraping noise, like something large dragging its belly through the leaves.

I turned and saw a rhino-size _Hydra _moving through the shadows of the trees. It was hissing, its front half writhing in all different directions. I wished I couldn't understand what I was seeing at first. Then was sure that I saw that the thing had multiple necks—at least seven, each topped with a hissing reptilian head. Its skin was leathery, and under each neck it wore a plastic bib that read: I'm A MONSTER DONUT KID!

"Oh my—"

"—hydra," Annabeth finished.

"Scary monster," Tyson whispered hoarsely.

I took out my ballpoint pen, but I didn't uncap it. I looked at Annabeth, we locked eyes, and we came to a silent agreement. _Not_ _yet_.

The reason why I didn't uncap it was because monsters usually had terrible eyesight. There was a chance that the Hydra might pass us by, but the celestial bronze sword would _definitely_ attract its attention.

We waited.

The Hydra was only a few feet away. It seemed to be sniffing the ground and the trees like it was hunting for something. Then I noticed that two of the heads were ripping apart a piece of yellow canvas—one of our duffel bags. The thing had already been to our campsite. It was following our scent.

I remembered facing a Hydra before. I think I ran away...or did I fight it?

Tyson was trembling. He stepped back and accidentally snapped a twig. Immediately, all seven heads turned toward us and hissed.

"Scatter!" Annabeth yelled. She dove to the right.

I rolled to the left. One of the Hydra heads spat an arc of green liquid that shot past my shoulder and splashed against an elm. The trunk smoked and began to disintegrate. The whole tree toppled straight toward Tyson, who still hadn't moved, petrified by the monster that was now right in front of him.

"Tyson!" I tackled him with all my might, knocking him aside just as the Hydra lunged and the tree crashed on top of two of its heads.

The Hydra stumbled backward, yanking its heads free then wailing in outrage at the fallen tree. All seven heads shot acid, and the elm melted into a steaming pool of muck.

"Move!" I told Tyson. I ran to one side and uncapped Riptide, hoping to draw the monster's attention.

It worked.

The sight of celestial bronze is hateful to most monsters. As soon as my glowing blade appeared, the Hydra whipped toward it with all its heads, hissing and baring its teeth.

The good news: Tyson was momentarily out of danger. The bad news: I was about to be melted into a puddle of goo. Unless...

I looked back. The river wasn't far back. And guess what rivers were made of. Water.

"Annabeth!" I called. "Back to the river!"

She looked slightly puzzled but did as I said. I dove to the left again as a spray of acid zoomed past me. Tyson just ran straight back to the river.

When Annabeth caught up to me, ducking and dodging, she yelled, "Why are you heading for the water? You have to kill the Hydra by either blowing it up completely, or cutting its heads off and burning the stumps with fire!"

"I fought a Hydra before! Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

"Really?"

That's when I remembered that I had lots of help from water spirits. "Actually, no. Run for your life."

"You are the worst!" she yelled. Then she sprinted back toward the river near Tyson.

Meanwhile, I continued to fight the Hydra. It was slowly pushing us back, but there was no way I could attack it without cutting one of its heads off.

I heard yelling from behind me, but I wasn't really paying attention so I couldn't hear what was being said. Then suddenly, Annabeth moved in on my left and tried to distract one of the heads, parrying its teeth with her knife, but another head swung sideways like a club and knocked her into the muck.

Tyson seemed to suddenly get the courage to fight the Hydra. "No hitting my friends!" Tyson charged in, putting himself between the Hydra and Annabeth. As Annabeth got to her feet, Tyson started smashing at the monster heads with his fists so fast it reminded me of the whack-a-mole game at the arcade.

But even Tyson couldn't fend off the Hydra forever.

We kept inching backward, dodging acid splashes and deflecting snapping heads without cutting them off, but I knew we were only postponing our deaths. Eventually, we would make a mistake and the thing would kill us. There were no water spirits to help me this time.

Then I heard a strange sound—a chug-chug-chug that at first I thought was my heartbeat. It was so powerful it made the riverbank shake.

"What's that noise?" Annabeth shouted, keeping her eyes on the Hydra.

"Steam engine," Tyson said.

"_What?" _I ducked as the Hydra spat acid over my head.

Then from the river behind us, a familiar female voice shouted: "There! Prepare the thirty-two-pounder!"

I didn't dare look away from the Hydra, but if that was who I thought it was behind us, I figured we now had enemies on two fronts. Unless...

A gravelly male voice said, "They're too close, m'lady!"

"Damn the heroes!" the girl said. "Full steam ahead!"

"Aye, m'lady."

"Fire at will, Captain!"

"Aw, Clarisse!" I shouted. "Don't change that Union expression! Hit the dirt!"

We dove for the ground as an earth-shattering _BOOM _echoed from the river. There was a flash of light, a column of smoke, and the Hydra exploded right in front of us, showering us with nasty green slime that vaporized as soon as it hit, the way monster guts tend to do.

"Gross!" screamed Annabeth.

"Steamship!" yelled Tyson.

I stood, coughing from the cloud of gunpowder smoke that was rolling across the banks.

Chugging toward us down the river was an old ironclad ship. It rode low in the water like a submarine, its deck plated with iron. In the middle was a trapezoid-shaped casemate with slats on each side for cannons. A flag waved from the top—a wild boar and spear on a blood red field. Lining the deck were zombies in gray uniforms— dead soldiers with shimmering faces that only partially covered their skulls, like the ghouls I'd seen in the Underworld guarding Hades' palace. The ship was a Civil War battle cruiser. I could just make out the name along the prow in moss-covered letters: CSS _Birmingham._

And standing next to the smoking cannon that had almost killed us, wearing full Greek battle armor, was Clarisse.

"Losers," she sneered. "But I suppose I have to rescue you. Come aboard."

Just then, Thalia and Luke burst onto the deck. They both seemed like they were just sleeping. "We heard the—"

Luke stopped when he saw us. "Percy?"

"Annabeth?" Thalia gaped.

I climbed aboard and said sarcastically, "Happy birthday! Here's your present!"

* * *

**Hey everyone,**

**This is part two of experiment one. It's like a science experiment except with writing. I kind of wish I could work on my poetry so that I can have Apollo say them. Well, then again, Apollo's poetry is pretty bad... Anyway, thanks for all of your support and I hope that you continue to support this story no matter how bad it may be. :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _any_ excerpts taken from Rick Riordan's book _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters._**

**I'm sorry for those who wanted some drastic change in this story compared to the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan, but I like keeping it closer. Trust me, later on there will be some parts that never happened in the real series, mainly because Percy has more guts from growing up on the streets. He doesn't take sh*t from anyone and is...different. But that will be later.**

**I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	12. Clarisse Blows Everything Up

**Hello everyone,**

**Thank you all for reading my story, blah, blah, blah. Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts from Rick Riordan's _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters_.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**

* * *

**Περσεύς 11**

**Clarisse Blows Everything Up**

"You guys are in _so _much trouble," Clarisse said.

I'd just finished a ship tour we didn't want, through dark rooms overcrowded with dead sailors. I'd seen the coal bunker, the boilers and engine, which huffed and groaned like it would explode any minute. I'd seen the pilothouse and the powder magazine and gunnery deck (Clarisse's favorite) with two Dahlgren smoothbore cannons on the port and starboard sides and a Brooke nine-inch rifled gun fore and aft—all specially refitted to fire celestial bronze cannon balls.

Everywhere I went, dead Confederate sailors stared at us, their ghostly bearded faces shimmering over their skulls. They were interested in me because my name was Jackson—like the Southern general—but then I ruined it by telling them I was from New York.

They all hissed and muttered curses about Yankees.

Finally, I was escorted to dinner. The CSS _Birmingham _captain's quarters were about the size of a walk-in closet, but still much bigger than any other room on board. The table was set with white linen and china. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, potato chips, and Dr Peppers were served by skeletal crewmen. I didn't want to eat anything served by ghosts, but my hunger overruled my fear.

"Tantalus expelled you for eternity," Clarisse told us smugly. "Mr. D said if you show your face at camp again, he'll turn you into squirrels and run you over with his SUV."

"Why so smug, La Rue?" I asked. "It's not like it'll benefit you in any way. What do you get? To bully everyone else again?"

She sneered. "If I _really_ wanted to, I'd kill you right now, but that wouldn't go well considering we're on your father's territory."

"Like you could kill me," I goaded. "I beat you last year. I can still beat you this year."

She growled and stepped closer to me. She was tall but only stood two inches taller than me. "I have the entire crew. You see, your daddy isn't the only one with sea power. The spirits on the losing side of every war owe a tribute to Ares. That's their curse for being defeated. I prayed to my father for a naval transport and here it is. These guys will do anything I tell them. Won't you, Captain?"

The captain stood behind her looking stiff and angry. His glowing green eyes fixed me with a hungry stare. "If it means an end to this infernal war, ma'am, peace at last, we'll do anything. Destroy anyone."

Clarisse smiled. "Destroy anyone. I like that."

But I wasn't paying attention to her. I was staring at the glowing green eyes of the captain. He seemed like he was sneering at me. Then he gave Clarisse a similar kind of look. I understood the captain being mad at Clarisse, but why would he be angry at me.

_Confederates...Union...General Sherman...Jefferson Davis..._

"Look, Clarisse," I tried to reason. "Annabeth and Tyson just followed me, but this quest isn't for them. Ethan is hot on our tails and I want to save camp just as much as you do. We both want to save it because we still want to fight with each other without having any interruptions, right?"

"Ethan is hot on our tails? Good, I'll blow him up."

"_And_ we need to team up," I said.

"No!" Clarisse pounded the table. "This is _my _quest, idiot boy! Finally _I _get to be the hero, and you will _not _steal my chance."

"You can still be the hero, Clarisse," I said. "But we need to—"

"No!" she shouted again. "I don't need anybody's help! Especially not yours."

"Then why did you bring Luke and Thalia?" I asked. "Don't you see? Tantalus is using you. He doesn't care about the camp. He'd love to see it destroyed. He's setting you up to fail."

"I brought Luke and Thalia because I had to," she replied. "The Oracle—" She stopped herself.

"What?" I said. "What did the Oracle tell you?"

"Nothing." Clarisse's ears turned pink.

"All you need to know is that I'm finishing this quest and you're _not _helping. On the other hand, I can't let you go..."

"What about Annabeth and Tyson?" I asked. "You have to let them go with you."

"Why do I have to take orders from you?" she countered.

"You took my orders in taking Luke and Thalia!"

"It was only because of what the Oracle told me! And _no_, you're not gonna find out what she said!"

"So, I'm basically a prisoner? And so are Annabeth and Tyson?"

"Guests. For now." Clarisse stood up and towered over me. She gave me a look I didn't quite understand. I knew it was meant to be a look of hatred, but there was something else in her face that seemed hesitant. The hesitation disappeared quickly. "Captain, take them below. Assign them hammocks on the berth deck. If they don't mind their manners, show them how we deal with enemy spies."

The dream came as soon as I fell asleep.

Grover was sitting at his loom, desperately unraveling his wedding train, when the boulder door rolled aside and the Cyclops bellowed, "Aha!"

Grover yelped. "Dear! I didn't—you were so quiet!"

"Unraveling!" Polyphemus roared. "So that's the problem!"

"Oh, no. I—I wasn't—"

"Come!" Polyphemus grabbed Grover around the waist and half carried, half dragged him through the tunnels of the cave. Grover struggled to keep his high heels on his hooves. His veil kept tilting on his head, threatening to come off.

The Cyclops pulled him into a warehouse-size cavern decorated with sheep junk. There was a wool-covered La-Z-Boy recliner and a wool-covered television set, crude bookshelves loaded with sheep collectibles—coffee mugs shaped like sheep faces, plaster figurines of sheep, sheep board games, and picture books and action figures.

The floor was littered with piles of sheep bones, and other bones that didn't look exactly like sheep—the bones of satyrs who'd come to the island looking for Pan.

Polyphemus set Grover down only long enough to move another huge boulder. Daylight streamed into the cave, and Grover whimpered with longing. _Fresh air!_

The Cyclops dragged him outside to a hilltop overlooking the most beautiful island I'd ever seen.

It was shaped kind of like a saddle cut in half by an ax. There were lush green hills on either side and a wide valley in the middle, split by a deep chasm that was spanned by a rope bridge. Beautiful streams rolled to the edge of the canyon and dropped off in rainbow-colored waterfalls. Parrots fluttered in the trees. Pink and purple flowers bloomed on the bushes. Hundreds of sheep grazed in the meadows, their wool glinting strangely like copper and silver coins.

And at the center of the island, right next to the rope bridge, was an enormous twisted oak tree with something glittering in its lowest bough.

The Golden Fleece.

Even in a dream, I could feel its power radiating across the island, making the grass greener, the flowers more beautiful.

I could almost smell the nature magic at work. I could only imagine how powerful the scent would be for a satyr.

Grover whimpered.

"Yes," Polyphemus said proudly. "See over there? Fleece is the prize of my collection! Stole it from heroes long ago, and ever since—free food! Satyrs come from all over the world, like moths to flame. Satyrs good eating! And now—"

Polyphemus scooped up a wicked set of bronze shears.

Grover yelped, but Polyphemus just picked up the nearest sheep like it was a stuffed animal and shaved off its wool. He handed a fluffy mass of it to Grover.

"Put that on the spinning wheel!" he said proudly. "Magic. Cannot be unraveled."

"Oh...well..."

"Poor Honeypie!" Polyphemus grinned. "Bad weaver. Ha-ha! Not to worry. That thread will solve problem. Finish wedding train by tomorrow!"

"Isn't that ... thoughtful of you!"

"Hehe."

"But—but, dear," Grover gulped, "what if someone were to rescue—I mean attack this island?" Grover looked straight at me, and I knew he was asking for my benefit.

"What would keep them from marching right up here to your cave?"

"Wifey scared! So cute! Not to worry. Polyphemus has state-of-the-art security system. Have to get through my pets."

"Pets?"

Grover looked across the island, but there was nothing to see except sheep grazing peacefully in the meadows.

"And then," Polyphemus growled, "they would have to get through me!"

He pounded his fist against the nearest rock, which cracked and split in half. "Now, come!" he shouted. "Back to the cave."

Grover looked about ready to cry—so close to freedom, but so hopelessly far. Tears welled in his eyes as the boulder door rolled shut, sealing him once again in the stinky torch-lit dankness of the Cyclops's cave.

I woke to alarm bells ringing throughout the ship.

The captain's gravelly voice: "All hands on deck! Find Lady Clarisse! Where is that girl?"

Then his ghostly face appeared above me. "Get up, Yankee. Your friends are already above. We are approaching the entrance."

"The entrance to what?"

He gave me a skeletal smile. "The Sea of Monsters, of course."

* * *

I stuffed my few belongings that had survived the Hydra into a sailor's canvas knapsack and slung it over my shoulder. I had a sneaking suspicion that one way or another I would not be spending another night aboard the CSS _Birmingham._

I was on my way upstairs when something made me freeze. A presence nearby—something familiar and unpleasant. For no particular reason, I felt like picking a fight. I wanted to punch a dead Confederate. The last time I'd felt like that kind of anger…

Instead of going up, I crept to the edge of the ventilation grate and peered down into the boiler deck.

Clarisse was standing right below me, talking to an image that shimmered in the steam from the boilers—a muscular man in black leather biker clothes, with a military haircut, red-tinted sunglasses, and a knife strapped to his side.

My fists clenched. It was my least favorite Olympian: Ares, the god of war.

"I don't want excuses, little girl!" he growled.

"Little girl?" I muttered to myself.

"Yes, father," Clarisse mumbled.

"You don't want to see me mad, do you?"

"No, father."

_"No, father," _Ares mimicked. "You're pathetic. I should've let one of my _sons _take this quest."

"I'll succeed!" Clarisse promised, her voice trembling. "I'll make you proud."

"You'd better," he warned. "You asked me for this quest, girl. If you let that slime ball Jackson kid steal it from you—"

"But the Oracle said—"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT IT SAID!" Ares bellowed with such force that his image shimmered. "You _will _succeed. And if you don't..."

He raised his fist. Even though he was only a figure in the steam, Clarisse flinched.

That almost made me feel sorry for Clarisse. I knew her father was a jerk, but a jerk to his own children? And he was being sexist. So what if Clarisse was a girl. She was better than all of her male siblings.

"Do we understand each other?" Ares growled.

The alarm bells rang again. I heard voices coming toward me, officers yelling orders to ready the cannons.

I crept back from the ventilation grate and made my way upstairs to join Annabeth Thalia, Luke and Tyson on the spar deck.

"What's wrong?" Annabeth asked me. "Another dream?"

I nodded, but I didn't say anything.

Clarisse came up the stairs right after me. I _attempted_ not to look at her.

She grabbed a pair of binoculars from a zombie officer and peered toward the horizon. "At last. Captain, full steam ahead!"

I looked in the same direction as she was, but I couldn't see much. The sky was overcast. The air was hazy and humid, like steam from an iron. If I squinted real hard, I could just make out a couple of dark fuzzy splotches in the distance.

The engine groaned as we increased speed.

Tyson muttered nervously, "Too much strain on the pistons. Not meant for deep water."

I wasn't sure if he was right or not, but I guessed that he'd learned it from some of the Hephaestus kids. That made me nervous.

After a few more minutes, the dark splotches ahead of us came into focus. To the north, a huge mass of rock rose out of the sea—an island with cliffs at least a hundred feet tall. About half a mile south of that, the other patch of darkness was a storm brewing. The sky and sea boiled together in a roaring mass.

"Hurricane?" Annabeth asked.

"No," Clarisse said. "Charybdis."

Annabeth paled. "Are you crazy?"

"Only way into the Sea of Monsters. Straight between Charybdis and her sister Scylla." Clarisse pointed to the top of the cliffs, and I remembered the story about the entrances to the Sea of Monsters: the Clashing Rocks and the story of Scylla and Charybdis.

I turned to Annabeth. "As much as it pains me to, I agree with Clarisse. It's the only way into there."

"You two are _both_ crazy," she decided.

"Well, I can't blow rocks up with these Civil War cannons," Clarisse rolled her eyes. "Monsters on the other hand..."

Annabeth sighed. "Whatever."

"Watch and learn, Wise Girl." She turned to the captain. "Set course for Charybdis!"

"Aye, m'lady."

The engine groaned, the iron plating rattled, and the ship began to pick up speed.

"Clarisse," I said, "Charybdis sucks up the sea. Isn't that the story?"

"And spits it back out again, yeah."

"What about Scylla?"

"She lives in a cave, up on those cliffs. If we get too close, her snaky heads will come down and start plucking sailors off the ship."

"Choose Scylla then," I said. "Everybody goes below deck and we chug right past."

"No!" Clarisse insisted. "If Scylla doesn't get her easy meat, she might pick up the whole ship. Besides, she's too high to make a good target. My cannons can't shoot straight up. Charybdis just sits there at the center of her whirlwind. We're going to steam straight toward her, train our guns on her, and blow her to Tartarus!"

She said it with such relish I almost wanted to believe her.

"But Clarisse, ironclads aren't meant for deep waters," I said. "You sure we can get past Charybdis?"

"What part of _steaming straight toward her, train our guns on her, and blow her to Tartarus_ did you not understand?"

I still doubted the idea but I kept my mouth shut.

The engine hummed. The boilers were heating up so much I could feel the deck getting warm beneath my feet. The smokestacks billowed. The red Ares flag whipped in the wind.

As we got closer to the monsters, the sound of Charybdis got louder and louder—a horrible wet roar like the galaxy's biggest toilet being flushed. Every time Charybdis inhaled, the ship shuddered and lurched forward. Every time she exhaled, we rose in the water and were buffeted by ten-foot waves.

I tried to time the whirlpool. As near as I could figure, it took Charybdis about three minutes to suck up and destroy everything within a half-mile radius. To avoid her, we would have to skirt right next to Scylla's cliffs. And as bad as Scylla might be, those cliffs were looking awfully good to me.

Undead sailors calmly went about their business on the spar deck. I guess they'd fought a losing cause before, so this didn't bother them. Or maybe they didn't care about getting destroyed because they were already deceased. Neither thought made me feel any better.

Annabeth stood next to me, gripping the rail. "You still have your thermos full of wind?"

I nodded. "But it's too dangerous to use with a whirlpool like that. More wind might just make things worse."

"What about controlling the water?" she asked. "You're Poseidon's son. You've done it before."

She was right. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate. I wasn't sure if anything was working because Charybdis was too loud, but something else broke my concentration. It wasn't the noise.

My eyes snapped open and I looked around. "Where are Luke and Thalia?"

Annabeth frowned. "They've been arguing. I don't know what's gotten into them. Thalia said they'd been fighting ever since the night before they left. I'm not exactly sure why they're fighting. But concentrate on the water. Try something."

I nodded, absorbing the information like a sponge and concentrated on the water. I used all of my willpower to try and calm the waters, but Charybdis was too strong.

I tried reversing the whirlpool's current on her, but all I could do was slow down the speed of the giant toilet's flush.

"I—I can't."

"We need a backup plan," Annabeth said. "This isn't going to work."

"Annabeth is right," Tyson said. "Engine's no good."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Pressure. Pistons need fixing."

Before he could explain, Thalia and Luke appeared on the deck and were calling at us. "Hey! Wait up!" Luke said.

They walked over to us and stood there. They seemed perfectly normal, but the way Thalia's eyebrows were knotted in an angry way and the way Luke had an angered look in his eyes showed that they'd come back from arguing.

"So, we're heading into the Sea of Monsters, huh?" Thalia asked, looking at the whirlpool. "Damn. At least we're not gonna get crushed by freaking rocks."

Before anything else could be said, the cosmic toilet flushed with a mighty _roaaar!_

The ship lurched forward and I was thrown to the deck. We were in the whirlpool.

"Full reverse!" Clarisse screamed above the noise. The sea churned around us, waves crashing over the deck. The iron plating was now so hot it steamed. "Get us within firing range! Make ready starboard cannons! Thalia, you here?"

She snapped to attention. "Yeah! What do you need?"

"Smite Charybdis when I tell you to," Clarisse ordered.

Thalia frowned and muttered quietly, "Why should I listen to you? This trip has been the worst trip ever."

"Just help her," I told the daughter of Zeus.

"Why should I listen to you?" she snapped at me. She was clearly ticked off. "Just because you led Annabeth and Tyson means you're the leader?"

"Jeez," I said. "Just because you're angry doesn't mean you have to take it out on me."

Thalia's expression softened. "Sorry, I'm just..."

"Yeah, I understand. But just destroy the monster. I wanna get out of here as soon as possible."

Dead Confederates started rushing back and forth. The propeller grinded into reverse, trying to slow the ship, but we kept sliding toward the center of the vortex.

A zombie sailor burst out of the hold and ran to Clarisse. His gray uniform was smoking. His beard was on fire. "Boiler room overheating, ma'am! She's going to blow!"

"Well, get down there and fix it!"

"Can't!" the sailor yelled. "We're vaporizing in the heat."

Clarisse pounded the side of the casemate. "All I need is a few more minutes! Just enough to get in range!"

"We're going in too fast," the captain said grimly. "Prepare yourself for death."

"No!" Tyson bellowed. "I can fix it."

Clarisse looked at him incredulously. "You?"

"He's a Cyclops," I said. "He's immune to fire and he knows mechanics. Beckendorf's been teaching him."

"Beckendorf?" Clarisse asked puzzled. "You mean Silena's—" She stopped herself thinking I didn't know of their interests in each other.

"Crush? Yeah, I know."

"Whatever." She shook her head. "Go, Tyson!"

I grabbed Tyson's shoulder before he could leave. "Be careful, Tyson. It's very dangerous."

He patted my hand. "I am careful, brother." His expression was determined—confident, even. I'd never seen him look like this before. "I will fix it. Be right back."

As I watched him follow the smoldering sailor down the hatch, I suddenly had a terrible feeling.

I wanted to run after him, but that would just seem weird...then the ship lurched again—and then I saw Charybdis.

She appeared only a few hundred yards away, through a swirl of mist and smoke and water. The first thing I noticed was the reef—a black crag of coral with a fig tree clinging to the top, an oddly peaceful thing in the middle of a maelstrom. All around it, water curved into a funnel, like light around a black hole. Then I saw the horrible thing anchored to the reef just below the waterline—an enormous mouth with slimy lips and mossy teeth the size of rowboats. And worse, the teeth had braces, bands of corroded scummy metal with pieces of fish and driftwood and floating garbage stuck between them.

Charybdis was an orthodontist's nightmare. She was nothing but a huge black maw with bad teeth alignment and a serious overbite, and she'd done nothing for centuries but eat without brushing after meals. As I watched, the entire sea around her was sucked into the void—sharks, schools of fish, a giant squid. And I realized that in a few seconds, the CSS _Birmingham _would be next.

"Lady Clarisse," the captain shouted. "Starboard and forward guns are in range!"

"Fire!" Clarisse ordered.

Three rounds were blasted into the monster's maw. One blew off the edge of an incisor. Another disappeared into her gullet. The third hit one of Charybdis' retaining bands and shot back at us, snapping the Ares flag off its pole.

"Thalia!" shouted Clarisse.

"Hi-ya!" Thalia yelled and a bolt of lightning arced from the sky and into the mouth of Charybdis. The monster yelled as electricity coursed through the water around her mouth. For a second, the whirlpool stopped as Charybdis relaxed.

"Let's go!" I shouted at Clarisse. "Let's get out of here while we can!"

The vibrations in the deck changed. The hum of the engine got stronger and steadier. The ship shuddered and we started pulling away from the mouth.

"Tyson did it!" Annabeth said.

Clarisse turned to the captain. "Full speed ahead. Away from the monsters. Hurry before—"

She continued speaking, but her words were lost in the explosion of Charybdis' mouth. It spat out a wall of water, ejecting everything inedible, including our cannonballs, one of which slammed into the side of the CSS _Birmingham _with a _ding _like the bell on a carnival game.

We were thrown backward on a wave that must've been forty feet high. I used all of my willpower to keep the ship from capsizing, but we were still spinning out of control, hurtling toward the cliffs on the opposite side of the strait.

Another smoldering sailor burst out of the hold. He stumbled into Clarisse, almost knocking them both over board. "The engine is about to blow!"

"Where's Tyson?" I demanded.

"Still down there," the sailor said. "Holding it together somehow, though I don't know for how much longer."

The captain said, "We have to abandon ship."

"No!" Clarisse yelled.

"We have no choice, m'lady. The hull is already cracking apart! She can't—"

He never finished his sentence. Quick as lightning, something brown and green shot from the sky, snatched up the captain, and lifted him away. All that was left were his leather boots.

"Scylla!" a sailor yelled, as another column of reptilian flesh shot from the cliffs and snapped him up. It happened so fast it was like watching a laser beam rather than a monster. I couldn't even make out the thing's face, just a flash of teeth and scales.

I uncapped Riptide and tried to swipe at the monster as it carried off another deckhand, but I was way too slow.

"Everyone get below!" I yelled.

"No!" Luke called, swiping at the flames. "Below deck is on fire. Our only chance are the—"

"Lifeboats," Thalia finished. "Quick!"

For people who had fought a lot in the past few days, they seemed like their same old selves.

"They'll never get clear of the cliffs," Clarisse said. "We'll all be eaten."

"We have to try," Annabeth said. She turned to me. "Percy, the thermos."

"I can't leave Tyson!"

"We have to get the boats ready!"

Clarisse took Annabeth's command. She and a few of her undead sailors uncovered one of the two emergency rowboats while Scylla's heads rained from the sky like a meteor shower with teeth, picking off Confederate sailors one after another.

"Get the other boat." I threw Annabeth the thermos. "I'll get Tyson."

"You can't!" she said. "The heat will kill you!"

"I need to get Tyson," I said. "I promise I'll be back, no matter what happens. Tell Thalia and Luke to stop at the nearest land. I'll meet you guys there."

"How will you know where to find us?"

"I will somehow. I know _that_ for sure."

"Wait! Percy!"

I didn't listen. I ran for the boiler room hatch, when suddenly my feet weren't touching the deck anymore. I was flying straight up, the wind whistling in my ears, the side of the cliff only inches from my face.

Scylla had somehow caught me by the knapsack, and was lifting me up toward her lair. Without thinking, I swung my sword behind me and managed to jab the thing in her beady yellow eye. She grunted and dropped me.

The fall would've been bad enough, considering I was a hundred feet in the air. But as I fell, the CSS _Birmingham _exploded below me.

"Tyson!" I yelled.

The lifeboats had managed to get away from the ship, but not very far. Flaming wreckage was raining down. Clarisse, Thalia, Luke and Annabeth would either be smashed or burned or pulled to the bottom by the force of the sinking hull, and that was thinking optimistically, assuming they got away from Scylla.

Then I heard a different kind of explosion—the sound of Hermes's magic thermos being opened a little too far. White sheets of wind blasted in every direction, scattering the lifeboats, lifting me out of my free fall and propelling me across the ocean.

I couldn't see anything. I spun in the air, got clonked on the head by something hard, and hit the water with a crash that would've broken every bone in my body if I hadn't been the son of the Sea God.

The last thing I remembered was sinking in a burning sea, knowing that Tyson was gone forever, and wishing I were able to drown.

* * *

**Hey everyone,**

**This is part two of experiment one. It's like a science experiment except with writing. I kind of wish I could work on my poetry so that I can have Apollo say them. Well, then again, Apollo's poetry is pretty bad... Anyway, thanks for all of your support and I hope that you continue to support this story no matter how bad it may be. :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _any_ excerpts taken from Rick Riordan's book _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters._**

**I'm sorry for those who wanted some drastic change in this story compared to the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan, but I like keeping it closer. Trust me, later on there will be some parts that never happened in the real series, mainly because Percy has more guts from growing up on the streets. He doesn't take sh*t from anyone and is...different. But that will be later.**

**I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	13. I Save My Friends From A Witch

**Hello everyone,**

**Thank you all for reading my story. Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts from Rick Riordan's _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters_.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**

* * *

**Περσεύς 12**

**I Save My Friends From a Witch**

I was floating in the middle of the sea when I woke up.

My eyes facing up toward the sky, I lay completely still, letting the waves push and pull me along. A gentle breeze blew across in a southeast direction. The day was sunny and bright, but the feeling of danger was cocooned around this part of the ocean. The waves still glittered as streaks of sun bounced off of them like a dodgeball bouncing off of someone's face; however, the waves were different. The glimpses of the sea that I saw made them seem more green—like Hydra's acid.

My head spun, but there was one clear thought that pounded through all of the nervous signals in my body (as in nervous system): _Tyson's dead_.

I'd seen that explosion rip through solid iron. If Tyson had been down in the boiler room, there was no way he could've lived, even if he was immune to fire.

I flipped, trying to ignore the slowly receding pounding in my head. I slowly swam down into the water. I wasn't really sure why I swam down, but I just needed some time to heal. Water always helped me.

There didn't seem to be as many fish around this part of the ocean as other parts. I guessed it was because of the fact that it was the Sea of Monsters and fish would've been eaten by other monsters.

I checked my backpack to see if anything was still there. There was almost nothing. The bag had been torn apart by Scylla's teeth and everything except for Hermes' bottle of multivitamins had floated away. I wasn't sure whether Hermes had put magic on the bottle to make it stay with me, but in any case, it wasn't exactly what I wanted to keep. I still had Riptide, which _did_ have magic and reappeared in my pocket whenever I lost it. If I didn't have this sword, I probably would've lost _a lot_ of celestial bronze by now.

The pain of the headache soothed and now became a slight irritation in my head, but no longer pounded heavily. I sighed and swam back up to the surface. _Bring me toward land_, I thought and the waves responded accordingly. I didn't know exactly how I could feel where land could have been, but just the movement of the current and the depth of the sea helped me figure it out. Assuming I was correct, I still had quite a bit of time before I would reach land.

I kept myself floating above the surface of the water so that I could have some personal time. I didn't really want to meet any sea monsters.

I recalled the talk with Ethan on the _Princess Andromeda_. He had mentioned something about the prophecy occurring when I was sixteen. _Sixteen_ seemed to sweet of a number to finish a prophecy on. The last prophecy I'd heard wasn't exactly pleasant even though the outcome was positive. I didn't really like the sound of having to make some sort of big decision when I turn sixteen. I mean, the way Ethan made it seem was the fact that I would die or something...would I?

There was no one to talk to about it. I still kind of wished I could talk to Chiron, but after what happened the last time I'd contacted him, I didn't want to take any chances.

The fact of death kind of made me feel depressed. Was I just alive to die at sixteen? What would happen if I died? What would happen if I was a coward and ran away. Would anything bad happen? I felt useless, not at all like myself. I'd changed since last year and I always strived to be useful in anything I attempted to do. Being useless was something my new-self would be.

I recalled back to the conversation that I'd had with Annabeth in Virginia. Remembering her story about the Cyclops, I tried not to think about how Tyson and other Cyclopes were so different. Tyson would never do that and he never had. The poor young Cyclops wouldn't be able to do anything else ever again alive. Tyson was also a monster and he wouldn't be able to go to Elysium. Only human-like souls would be able to.

I closed my eyes. It felt like my mother's death all over again. It felt like Viola's death all over again. That was three too many death's I had to endure. Tyson was brave in his last moments. The similarity between him and Viola was that they were both young when they passed on. And the most important similarity was that I led them to their deaths.

It was my fault Viola was dead. I had left her behind back in Winnipeg and allowed her to get lost in the blizzard. This time, I'd volunteered Tyson to help fix the boiler room of the _CSS Birmingham_. I was practically the reincarnation of Thanatos to my closest friends. Annabeth and Grover had almost perished in the Underworld last year when Kronos attempted to pull us into Tartarus. There was no doubt Luke and Thalia would be next. If I had been next to a door or chair or table or anything that could have been broken, I would have broken it. Why did I have to lead my closest relatives and friends to death? Why couldn't I be a hero like the prophecy foretold? What good would I do, even in three years?

Furiously, I let my anger loose by creating a giant explosion of water. It exploded in my face, but I couldn't feel anything. I still wished I could drown. Why did some loser like me have to be the son of Poseidon?

Then I remembered Grover's new predicament. I cursed. Polyphemus would be marrying Grover soon and I was still one hundred thirteen nautical miles west by northwest of my destination.

I was tired and I needed some rest, but I didn't think travelling one hundred thirteen nautical miles would be relaxing. I needed to find land quick.

Suddenly, a bird swooped down from the sky. This was no ordinary bird...at least I think it wasn't native to this part of the world. It was a bald eagle, like the symbol of...

"Zeus' messenger?" I said. "Usually that'd be Hermes, but if he's sending an eagle..."

The eagle screeched and circled over me once. It looked at me like it was trying to warn me of something. Then, it sprinted across the sky in a bolt of lightning toward the south.

"Wait, what?"

I floated there, puzzled. _Why would the bird just fly__...oh._

Then I finally noticed land. There was a line of blue and brown in the distance. Another minute and I could make out an island with a small mountain in the center, a dazzling white collection of buildings, a beach dotted with palm trees, and a harbor filled with a strange assortment of boats.

The current pulled me toward the side of the island. From above the roof of one of the buildings that faced the ocean, another bolt of lightning appeared and a tiny figure zoomed up into the sky and the clouds. Thunder rumbled in the clear day of the sky.

If that was a warning from Zeus, I didn't want to take that order. The stuck-up god of the sky wanted to kill me. Why would I help him? But the thing was, I had a feeling of what he wanted me to do for him, and that was the fact that made me agree. The one thing he and I had in common was having a relative named Thalia Grace.

The puzzle pieces finally formed together in my head and I realized that Luke, Annabeth and Thalia were probably here. They were in one lifeboat while Clarisse took the other.

I looked to the harbor and sure enough, there was an orange lifeboat that looked exactly like the ones that had escaped from the ironclad ship.

I willed the currents to bring me to the building Zeus said they were in.

The building was beautiful, a mix of Greek and Roman architecture. It had the Roman's concrete arcs with Greek marble pillars on either side of the door. Just everything about it screamed _Come to me! I'm so appealing!_

It almost seemed too good to be paradise. I actually kind of thought that this island was some kind of trap, but the more I thought about that, the more inviting the place seemed to get.

I got out of the water as quietly as I could and walked up to one of the windows of the building. When I peeked inside, I found quickly that I was correct. Thalia, Annabeth and Luke were definitely here. They looked like they'd just gotten here. All of them looked weary, tired and hungry...but there was also this look that seemed different. I could figure out what it was exactly, but they didn't look like they were focused...like they were enchanted or something. If I were with them, I wouldn't disagree. This island seemed to be enchanting just by its surface.

A young woman holding a clipboard introduced them to an older woman who looked relatively familiar. She looked like someone I had seen on a computer once, but I couldn't tell who she was. Her long dark hair was braided with threads of gold. She had piercing green eyes and she wore a silky black dress with shapes that seemed to move in the fabric: animal shadows, black upon black, like deer running through a forest at night.

The back wall of the room was covered in mirrors, so the room seemed to go on forever. There was a bunch of expensive-looking white furniture, and on a table in one corner was a large wire pet cage. The cage seemed out of place, but I didn't think about it too much.

I tried reading the lips of the woman and my friends, but the only thing I could really pick up were the words "beautiful," "amazing," and "See-see?" _See-see...cc...C.C._ Maybe the woman's name was C.C.

The young woman in the back nodded to something "C.C." said led Annabeth and Thalia out of the room. That's when I saw that inside the pet cage were guinea pigs. It was totally offsetting, but my brain kicked into action. Why would there be guinea pigs in a beautiful room like this?

C.C. dragged Luke to the back wall and began speaking to him. That's when I tried to stay out of sight. They could see the windows in the mirrors and I didn't want to risk getting caught so quickly.

C.C. seemed so inviting and so did the young woman with the clipboard, but if they were in the Sea of Monsters, I knew something had to be up. Not everything in the Sea of Monsters has to monsters...

I racked my brain for Greek stories about guinea pigs, evil females and enchanted islands. I got no results for guinea pigs, four results for evil females and a few results for enchanted islands. The evil females I could think of were Medusa, Medea, Gaea, the Sirens and Circe. The enchanted islands I could think of were Calypso's enchanted island where she attempted to seduce Odysseus, the Land of the Sirens and Circe's enchanted island.

My brain was too slow to process the information that was right in front of me. It took me half a minute to realize that Circe was an evil female, who had an enchanted island and turned men into _pigs_. Guinea pigs weren't necessarily pigs, but they had the word pigs in the name.

When I realized the fact, I hopped up like a rabbit to look inside the room where Circe and Luke were alone. My eyes went wide when I saw that Circe was holding a little guinea pig in her hands. He was struggling, but Circe's grip was too strong. I watched as she brought Luke to the pet cage and dropped him in with all of the other guinea pigs.

I ducked as she turned back toward the windows. I reached for my right pocket where Riptide was, but then I looked down at my left pocket. I pulled out the bottle of vitamins. I looked at the different colored monster-vitamins and recalled back to when I received the bottle.

_How will I know if I really, really need it?_ I had asked.

His reply was, _You'll know, believe me. Nine essential vitamins, minerals, amino acids...oh, everything you need to feel yourself again._

I lifted my head and observed the rocky waves that pounded against the shore of Circe's Island. I gripped the bottle of multivitamins tighter and remembered what I had thought to myself just before I reached this island.

_I felt useless, not at all like myself. I'd changed since last year and I always strived to be useful in anything I attempted to do. Being useless was something my new-self would be._

"Everything you need to feel yourself again," I muttered. "Everything anyone needs to feel themselves again," I modified. I glanced back down on the ground.

_I fear without your help, he will perish_, Hermes had said of Luke.

"Not perish." I wondered if Olympus watch us like we were a television show, and if so, I hoped Hermes was watching. "Luke would be trapped here forever. But he won't." I had promised to help protect Luke years ago. It was a promise I had to keep. After losing Tyson, I couldn't lose another person within a day. Luke wasn't his brother, but one of his best friends. You could say he felt like kin. "Now, how do I get in there?"

* * *

I learned that the young woman's name was Hylla. Apparently, she didn't like the sight of me much, as if she knew I was going to cause trouble.

"So, uh, where is that room with the tapestry?" I asked. "I couldn't help but notice it when I arrived. It's beautiful, don't you think?"

Hylla put on a fake cheery smile. "Yeah, the tapestry here is wonderful. But that room is off-limits at this moment. If you want to talk to C.C., I can get you an appointment with her now. She's examining someone right now, and two of his friends are getting hair treatments."

"Oh, really?" I pretended to be interested. Despite the fact that Hylla was a clipboard lady, her obsidian eyes and dark hair made her seem like she was trying to hide a part of her. The obsidian eyes and dark hair made her seem colder, like she was the daughter of Ares or something. "So...this C.C...who is she?"

"She is the owner of C.C.'s Spa & Resort," she informed me.

"No, I mean her actual name," I said. "I know this is an enchanted island. I'm not as dumb as I look."

Her face tightened a bit. After a few seconds of hesitation, she admitted, "Her name is Circe, sorceress and daughter of Helios and Hecate."

I smiled. "There we go. That's the answer I was looking for. Now, you may be a clipboard lady, but your features tell me a different story. You have dark eyes and dark hair. There's just this aura around you that emits this feeling I get whenever I meet a war god. I figure you aren't as weak as you try to make yourself be."

It felt kind of weird to be directing someone who was older than me, but she stayed quite attentive as I told her that something bad would occur because of this.

"You cannot do this!" she exclaimed after I finished explaining about how I needed to get my friends out of here. "I will not allow you to destroy my home!"

"Well, that's what will happen if Circe catches me trying to sneak in," I said. "She will only attack if I am caught. That is why I need you to lead me to that room without being seen by Circe. If you don't, I'm going in there by force."

"How dare you threaten me!" she exploded. "I will not be pushed around by you, _Percy Jackson_." She said my name in a venomous tone. "I cannot allow my sister to be..._there_."

"There?"

"It does not matter," she snapped. "You won't enter this place to save your friends if it means there is any risk of the destruction of our home."

"Fine." I gave in. "At least tell me which way the room is."

"No! Are you stupid?"

"No, I'm not!"

I stared at the stubborn young woman in front of me. "Look, I don't want to hurt you. I don't _want_ to destroy your island, but let me promise you one thing. If anything happens that destroys the island, I'll come back to the room where the guinea pigs are to fetch you and your sister. By the way, what's her name?"

"I'm not telling you...but the room is just down the hall this way." She pointed toward a giant hallway full of sculptures and water fountains. There will be a staircase leading up to the room. But I swear, if you leave us to die..." She left the threat hanging.

I nodded my promise.

She briskly walked away and I sighed. "Jeez, she has a temper." I wondered what her godly parentage was...or if she was a demigod at all. But I didn't think a nymph would look like that.

I looked around, making sure that no one could see me. Then I sneaked into the hallway. When I got into it, though, I couldn't help but drop my jaw. The sculptures were amazing. There were tons, like statues of Hecate...more Hecate...some Medea...some Circe...a couple Calypso...

"Really?" I whispered. "This is all you have? What about heroes like Perseus, Heracles, Atalanta and Amelia Earhart?"

I continued along the hallway, admiring the artwork even if they were of the same few people. The water fountains sprayed water into the air, forming impossible shapes, like flying eagles and galloping horses.

I knew Tyson loved horses, but that only brought back sad memories.

Soon, just like Hylla had said, a staircase appeared in view. It was one of those spiraling ones that looked all fancy. The stairs, like the flooring, were made of polished marble. Annabeth would totally love to check out the architecture of this building to help her get ideas. She was a mad architect in a way.

I crept up the marble steps as quietly as I could. Voices became more prominent and louder as I got closer to the top. I could hear a very soothing and magical voice which I immediately knew was Circe. The other voice I could hear was Annabeth's. But there was no sign of Thalia's voice anywhere.

"Yes, my dear." Circe said. "My mother is Hecate, the goddess of magic. I know a daughter of Athena when I see one. We are not so different, you and I. We both seek knowledge. We both admire greatness. Neither of us needs to stand in the shadow of men."

"I—I don't understand. What did you do to Thalia and Luke?"

I heard squealing from what I assumed were the guinea pigs in the background.

"Luke is still getting our treatment," Circe lied. "Trust me. And as for Thalia...well, she is here as well." I could almost feel her creepy smile. "They are both getting executive treatments which would normally cost _a lot_ of drachma."

"I—I...but..."

"Stay with me," she was telling Annabeth. "Study with me. You can join our staff, become a sorceress, learn to bend others to your will. You will become immortal!"

"But—"

"You are too intelligent, my dear," Circe said. "You know better than to trust that silly camp for heroes. How many great female half-blood heroes can you name?"

"Um, Atalanta, Amelia Earhart—"

"Bah! Men get all the glory," Circe sneered. "The only way to power for women is sorcery. Medea, Calypso, now there were powerful women! And me, of course. The greatest of all."

"You...C.C...Circe!"

"Yes, my dear."

I heard the slight tapping of footsteps, and Circe laughed. "You need not worry. I mean you no harm."

"What have you done to Luke and Thalia?"

"For Thalia, my...she was a temperamental little girl. Let's say she didn't come with the right prescription." The sound of something being pulled out of a cage echoed along the walls. "She is a shrew now, ha! And as for Luke. Well, I helped him realize his true form."

Annabeth was silent, but I hoped she'd noticed that he was a guinea pig. I only had five more steps to go, but if I went any faster I would be heard. I needed to go slow and steady.

"Forget them," Circe finally said after some silence. "Join me and learn the ways of sorcery."

"Your friend will be well cared for. He'll be shipped to a wonderful new home on the mainland. The kindergartners will adore him. Meanwhile, you will be wise and powerful. You will have all you ever wanted."

Annabeth continued to stay silent. As soon as I reached the top, I heard Annabeth curse to herself, "I forgot the multivitamins! Crap, now they're gone!" Her voice cracked at the end. I realized she felt powerless to help save her friends. That's where I come in.

I quietly opened the cap, took out a lemon chewable, and popped it into my mouth. I felt the sudden change in my body. There was no sign or symptoms of the magical multivitamins, but I just felt...stronger. Something about Hermes' multivitamins made me feel less vulnerable. I wasn't sure if they would work properly but I hoped that the vitamin I took would protect me against magic.

I took out my pen. In a fake voice that didn't sound much like mine, I called, "Hey! Circe! That's enough. You're not treating these kids like this anymore. Turn them back into demigods."

I could only imagine the highly confused look the sorceress had on her face. "Excuse me? And who the Hades are you?"

I heard more footsteps. I guessed that she probably had bodyguards with her or something. I inhaled sharply and said, "Well I'm no son of Hades. That's for sure. The thing you got right, though, is that my friends think I'm dead. And I want you to turn them back to humans."

"Percy?" Annabeth called.

"Percy?" Circe asked confused. A nervous feeling inside of me said that the vitamin wouldn't last too much longer. I still needed to defeat her before the magic-repellant wore off. "Who is _Percy?_"

I turned the corner and grinned. "I'm Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, and you're gonna let my friends go." I uncapped Riptide.

The sorceress stepped back, no longer carrying Thalia, but her surprise quickly passed. She sneered. "Really, little boy, a knife against _my _magic? Is that wise? Oh, wait. I forgot, you're the son of Poseidon. You _can't_ be wise!"

Circe looked back at her attendants, who smiled. They raised their hands as if preparing to cast a spell.

I grinned at them, but inside my heart pounded. _Please work. If they don't, I'm never taking anything from Hermes ever again_.

"What will Percy's makeover be?" Circe mused. "Something small and ill-tempered. I know...a shrew! Just like his cousin!"

"Percy!" Annabeth yelled.

Blue fire coiled from her fingers curling like serpents around me. I waited for something to go wrong. Nothing went wrong. The multivitamins worked exactly like they were supposed to. I didn't turn into a shrew like Thalia, but instead, stayed Percy Jackson...only angrier.

I took a step forward. "You know, I really don't need a makeover," I said with a fake sweet smile. It turned into a snarl. "I want my friends back!"

"Never! I'll never bring your friends back!" the sorceress yelled. She pointed at Annabeth. "Make a single move and I'll turn her into a star-nosed mole!"

Her left hand stayed pointed at Annabeth. I looked at the young daughter of Athena. She was wide-eyed, still probably trying to believe I was still alive. I quickly tried thinking of a plan to get us out of here. That one guinea pig that used to be squealing loudly was now staring at me with beady eyes. So was the shrew.

Then the lightbulb went off in my head.

"So, what?" I shrugged. "I'm immune to your magic and I will continue to be for a while. You will have to follow me. Besides, even as a star-nosed mole Annabeth would know how to eat."

Circe looked confused. "What? How does eating have anything to do with this?"

I just smiled. I reached into my left pocket, pretended to have struggles with taking the bottle of multivitamins out and then popped a random multivitamin into my hand. There were pros and cons of this plan. It all depended on whether Circe and her attendants would try to see what I threw at Annabeth. I locked eyes with the daughter of Athena. She seemed to understand what I wanted to do.

I pulled my left hand out of my pocket and threw the multivitamin at Annabeth. Luckily, Circe and her attendants tried to look for what I threw at her, like I had planned. Annabeth quickly grabbed it and ate it. Circe realized what had happened too late. "No!" She tried casting a spell on Annabeth, but it did the same thing to her that it did to me. "Curse Hermes and his multivitamins! Those are such a fad! They do _nothing _for you."

Annabeth unsheathed her knife and leaped at Circe's attendants.

"Go Percy!" she said. "Save Luke and Thalia!"

I smiled and grabbed Circe by the arm. I dragged her over to where she set down Thalia and I took out a multivitamin for Thalia to chew. Suddenly, a thirteen year old girl appeared where the shrew used to sit. That specific thirteen year old girl was furious.

"Wanna take her?" I offered. I held up Circe's arm to Thalia. She smiled and grabbed it tersely.

Then I turned to the guinea pig cage. Now all of the guinea pigs were squealing, not just Luke. I hesitated for a moment before dumping the entire bottle of multivitamins into the cage. Every guinea pig pounced on a treat. Soon enough, the cage exploded and Luke, along with a bunch of other guys, appeared on the floor.

"No!" Circe screamed. "You don't understand! Those are the worst!"

One of the men stood up—a huge guy with a long tangled pitch-black beard and teeth the same color. He wore mismatched clothes of wool and leather, knee-length boots, and a floppy felt hat. The other men were dressed more simply—in breeches and stained white shirts. All of them were barefoot.

"Argggh!" bellowed the big man. "What's the witch done t'me!"

"No!" Circe moaned.

Annabeth gasped. "I recognize you! Edward Teach, son of Ares?"

"Aye, lass," the big man growled. "Though most call me Blackbeard! And there's the sorceress what captured us, lads. Run her through, and then I mean to find me a big bowl of celery! Arggggh!"

Circe screamed. She and her attendants ran from the room, chased by the pirates.

Annabeth sheathed her knife and glared at me. Thalia and Luke both followed her example.

"Hey," I laughed nervously. "Well, don't expect me to be here much longer. I promised someone I'd fetch them and get them off of this island."

Their glares turned into looks of confusion. "What?" Thalia asked.

That's when I realized that Thalia and Annabeth had both gotten extreme makeovers. Both were wearing white sleeveless silk dresses. Annabeth had her blond hair newly washed and combed and braided with gold. Thalia's raven-black hair looked even spikier than before. Both girls also had makeup all over their faces. To be honest, it just looked wrong on them. It made them...not them.

"Follow me to the harbor," I said and ran out of the room. Luke, Thalia and Annabeth were quick to follow.

We ran down the hillside through the terraces, past screaming spa workers and pirates ransacking the resort. Blackbeard's men broke the tiki torches for the luau, threw herbal wraps into the swimming pool, and kicked over tables of sauna towels.

I almost felt bad letting the unruly pirates out, but I guessed they deserved something more entertaining than the exercise wheel after being cooped up in a cage for three centuries. Besides, it would do Hylla good to get off of this island.

"Which ship?" Annabeth said as we reached the docks.

I looked around desperately. We couldn't very well take our rowboat. We had to get off the island fast, but what else could we use? A sub? A fighter jet? I couldn't launch any of those things quickly. And then I saw it.

"There," I said.

Annabeth blinked. "But—"

"I can make it work."

"How?"

I couldn't explain. I just somehow knew an old sailing vessel was the best bet for me.

I pushed Luke forward, grabbed Annabeth's and Thalia's hands, and pulled them toward the three-mast ship. Painted on its prow was the name that I would only decipher later: _Queen Anne's Revenge._

"Argggh!" Blackbeard yelled somewhere behind us. "Those scalawags are a-boarding me vessel! Get 'em, lads!"

"We'll never get going in time!" Annabeth yelled as she climbed aboard. Thalia and Luke climbed in after her, but I stayed on shore. I needed to get to Hylla. I'd promised.

The ship was in great condition for a three-hundred-year-old vessel, but it would still take a crew of fifty several hours to get underway. We didn't have several hours. I could see the pirates running down the stairs, waving tiki torches and sticks of celery.

"You know," Luke called. "I could use some celery right now!"

"Not the time!" Thalia snapped.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on the waves lapping against the hull, the ocean currents, the winds all around me. Suddenly, the right word appeared in my mind.

"Mizzenmast!" I yelled.

"What the Hades are you—" Thalia was cut off by whistling sounds of ropes being snapped taut, canvases unfurling, and wooden pulleys creaking.

Annabeth ducked as a cable flew over her head and wrapped itself around the bowsprit. "Percy, how..."

I didn't have an answer, but I could feel the ship responding to me as if it were part of my body.

I willed the sails to rise as easily as if I were flexing my arm. I willed the rudder to turn.

Then I summoned most of my will to shove the boat from the dock and send it sailing into the Sea of Monsters. There was no giant wave of water, but the way the waves receded from the shore and didn't come back for a while showed that I was pushing the boat further away from the island.

"Percy!" I heard a faint cry from the boat.

I waved goodbye to Thalia, Annabeth and Luke before turning around to run away from the pirates. I ordered the entire beach to explode with water so that I could quickly escape combat with Blackbeard for now.

The beach lit up like a water fountain show, and water and sand spewed everywhere. I ignored the flying sand and ran like hell toward the buildings. I sprinted back up the hill and into the building I had saved my friends from. I scanned around trying to find my way around the ransacked buildings.

It took a few minutes, but I finally found the room that Blackbeard and his fellows were originally in. I uncapped Riptide again and burst into the room, just in case there were pirates in there. Sure enough, when I burst in, there were pirates surrounding Hylla and her younger sister who looked only a year my junior. They looked almost exactly the same except for the notable age difference.

Hylla was holding a spear and levelling it at the three pirates surrounding her. She noticed my entrance and we locked eyes. She nodded tersely and I lunged at the nearest pirate. I did a spinning hook kick and hit him right on the side of his head. The other two pirates were temporarily shocked, which gave Hylla enough time to smack both of them on the head with the spear.

She turned to her sister. "You will need to learn how to judge people for the future. If they are bad like the pirates, kill them. If they will help and are useful, like him"—she pointed toward me—"keep them alive."

The girl turned to me with the same steely look her sister gave to me the first time I suggested that I destroy her home.

"Circe said not to trust men," Reyna replied.

"You can trust them, but women should be in charge," Hylla replied.

I smirked. "All right. Lead us out, Miss Hylla."

She gave me _the look_. "Also, know when men are being rude or not. You will need to learn this for the future."

"Why do you keep saying that now?" Hylla's sister asked. "It's like you're saying we're going to split apart now! I don't want you to leave me!"

Hylla's face tightened. "There is only one option. I'm sorry. You would not want to join the Amazons. But become the leader so that it is fair. The male won't be able to dominate you. You are a strong girl."

I had no idea what they were talking about, but more pirates burst into the room. This time, there were four archers. I noticed that instead of pointed arrows, they were blunt-tipped arrows. "I hope these pirates are as dumb as they seem," I muttered.

But they weren't. In perfect precision, they fired two arrows right at the heads of Hylla and her sister. They were knocked out easily, a bump forming on each of their heads. I turned to the pirate archers.

"_Di immortales_," I grunted. "Why do you have to be sons of Apollo?"

They drew their arrows back and aimed at me. I bent my knees, ready to move. Smartly, one arrow was fired at me at first. As soon as I began to swing at that arrow to slice it, another arrow was fired. A large blunt-tipped arrow crashed into the side of my head. I slammed onto the ground, though still conscious.

"Aye!" a faint voice called. "He's still awake!"

"Then hit 'is head again," another called. "Blackbeard's gonna be happy if we bring back another pris'ner."

Then, something that felt like a boot crashed down on my head and I fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

**Hey everyone,**

**This is part two of experiment one. It's like a science experiment except with writing. I kind of wish I could work on my poetry so that I can have Apollo say them. Well, then again, Apollo's poetry is pretty bad... Anyway, thanks for all of your support and I hope that you continue to support this story no matter how bad it may be. :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _any_ excerpts taken from Rick Riordan's book _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters._**

**I'm sorry for those who wanted some drastic change in this story compared to the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan, but I like keeping it closer. Trust me, later on there will be some parts that never happened in the real series, mainly because Percy has more guts from growing up on the streets. He doesn't take sh*t from anyone and is...different. But that will be later.**

**I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	14. Trapped on Pirate Island

**Hello everyone,**

**Thank you all for reading my story. Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts from Rick Riordan's _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters_.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**

* * *

**Περσεύς 13**

**Trapped on Pirate Island**

I woke up to the sound of laughter.

Groggily, I lifted my head to see pirates staring down at us.

"Look at that one there!" one said pointing at me. "What a wimp! Y'ear he got hit by one arrow and he collapsed. Even our weakest one wouldn't fall to that!" The pirates laughed some more.

Slowly, I got up and analyzed my surroundings. I was in a giant cage of some sort. Outside of the cage was a room I didn't recognize, now that it had been completely torn down. Well, at the least the decorations had been torn down. Ashes lay everywhere, everything seemingly torched until they were dust and ash. I could smell the smoke, which told me that they had recently burned the place. There was no door to the room, pirates having to guard me 24/7.

I didn't know how long I was out, but I prayed I wasn't out long enough for the _Queen Anne's Revenge_ to crash into an island. I hoped that my father felt nice and sent the ship safely to Polyphemus' Island.

"Aye, lad!" one pirate called at me. "We couldn't lock the gate, so Blackbeard told us t'guard ya and your fancy ladies. Normally we wouldn't kidnap a fellow like you, but Blackbeard says ya tried t'steal 'is ship and ya tried t'save horrible women so we have t'do what we got t'do."

I turned around and noticed a furious-looking Hylla and her unconscious sister.

"It's about time you woke up," Hylla said quietly. She turned to me with a cold look in her eyes. Quietly, so that the guards couldn't hear, she whispered, "We need to think of a plan to get out of here. But first, we should see what the pirates have torn down so that I can think of an escape route."

I opened my mouth to ask why she was the leader, but I remembered that she disliked men from staying with Circe for so long. I nodded curtly. "Yes, ma'am. My mom always thought women should lead. Through all of my experiences...well, the guys have always been much dumber. And to be honest, I'm not the sharpest sword you'll find. I just own it."

Her mouth twitched slightly. "We'd better get prepared to do some hard labor. There's a price to not knowing how to use weapons properly."

Then, a felt the presence of someone who felt like they were the best, someone who was cocky. "Only a son of Ares," I muttered. I turned back around and sure enough, Blackbeard himself strode into the room. He tried to make himself look fancy, but he was a huge guy with a long tangled pitch-black beard and teeth the same color. He wore mismatched clothes of wool and leather, knee-length boots, and a floppy felt hat. That didn't make him fancy at all.

"Look at our catch today, boys!" he called as more pirates entered the room. "We've got ourselves some more workers. It's too bad, really. The dead could've made really good workers. But we'll settle for a few. It's better than nothin'."

He turned to me with that same look that Clarisse often gave me. "Now let's see who we have 'ere. A boy a two girls." He turned his gaze on Hylla and for a second, his eyes sparkled. "Take the girl to the home quarters. She'll serve me well."

I narrowed my eyes. That suspiciously sounded like something including "serving." I'd heard serving used in many different ways, but the worst version of that word was to "serve sex." Trust me, living on the streets is _much_ harder than it seems.

Blackbeard turned his gaze to Hylla's sister. "My, what a young one. She'd serve me well, too! But unfortunately, we already got one. She'll go wit' the boy and help us sweep the entire island."

He gave me a stern look. "And make sure if they don't do their job, flog 'em! Ya don't have t'watch them every minute, but you can oversee what they're doin', alright?"

"Yes, captain!"

"Now bring them out to the harbor," he ordered. "Let's let them start where the mess is lesser, eh?"

The pirates laughed as four came to grab Hylla's sister and I out of the cage. Hylla stayed in there, her face pale, and strained, but calm. She seemed like she was trying to hold in an outburst. I wasn't sure why she couldn't just call out, but it seemed like she'd tried that before and it hadn't gone well.

When the pirates picked Hylla's sister up and hit her head against the metal bars, I shouted, "Hey! Watch where you're going!"

The pirates in the cage went to shut me up and knock me unconscious, but within ten seconds, they were all unconscious on the ground. I turned to Blackbeard. "I'm here to help, but provoke me and I'll kill you. I hate your father as much as criminals—no, more. I'll carry her while you friends _guard_ me."

Blackbeard still looked astonished that I took out his pirate friends with such ease. He recovered slowly. "Ya can't order me around like some harmless puppy. I changed my mind. Your going t'get the hardest job first. Let's see how you like that."

I stopped walking to Hylla's sister and froze. I didn't know _that_ much about pirates, but from stories I had heard, they were cruel beings. Suddenly, I had a feeling of dread.

"No!" Hylla suddenly called. Everyone turned to her. "Do what you want to me. You are not punishing him."

Blackbeard voice exactly what I was thinking. "You were a resident of this island. I thought you'd hate men." But he seemed to figure what I couldn't. His eyes travelled to Hylla's sister. "Ah, so you want the lad to protect your sister. I see now. Sure, anything to please a fine woman like yourself."

Any person with common sense and gut instincts would know that he wanted something out of Hylla. Why else would he be nice? Most guys in the world (not usually demigods) did take advantage of women. It was just in the mind of twisted and sick-minded men to take advantage of women. Instead of giving them what they wanted—respect—they were treated like toys, never permanent but hunted by men for temporary fun. It wasn't to say all men were like this, but I mean, even I knew that some are.

Hylla scowled at the last sentence but kept quiet. She turned to me and made a gesture at her sister. I nodded, understanding what she wanted me to do.

I picked Hylla's sister up and carried her in my arms. She was mumbling now, dreams beginning to reach her. I looked up at Blackbeard and asked, "Where do we go?"

He thought about it for a moment. "Bring them to the top of the mountain and have them clean up Circe's prison cell."

I frowned. "How do you keep a goddess in a prison cell? I mean, she _is_ a goddess."

"A stupid one, lad," he replied. "Now get t'work before I flog ya!"

I followed the guards up the mountain with Hylla's sister in my arms. I kind of hoped she didn't wake up when she was in my arms considering she'd lived on an island with a man-hating sorceress. I doubt it would end pretty. But that was only because I wouldn't hurt her. Hylla would kill me if I did. It would be useful to learn her name, though.

The girl was beginning to get a little restless. She seemed to want to toss and turn.

It was soon enough before we reached the top and I gently lay Hylla's sister on the ground next to the entrance of Circe's prison cell.

"No!" called a pirate. "Bring her inside the cell. That way we don't have to throw her in when she awake. Eddie really wants t'please the older girl, if y'know what I mean." He winked. "I don't have much interest in pris'ners, but a pirate's got to do what a pirate's got to do."

Knowing I probably couldn't save Hylla at the moment, I decided I wouldn't attack all of these guys and knock them out. I obliged to their instructions and brought Hylla's sister into the cell. It was disgusting inside. There was a poop bucket in the corner that was full and a smell—something that just smelled disgusting. I had no idea what it was, but it was rancid. Yeah, rancid. I felt like I could taste the smell.

The windows were blockaded by bars and there were blood stains all over the room, which probably looked beautiful before it was trashed by Blackbeard and his buddies. I wasn't sure where Circe was at the moment, but it seemed like Blackbeard really held a grudge.

"Clean it up," the same pirate said to me, shutting the door so that I couldn't escape.

I scrunched up my nose and began to work.

It was difficult getting near the poop bucket. The horrid smell and the smell of crap mixed to be a fascinating yet horrifying combination. It was twenty minutes later when Hylla's sister woke up.

She, like me, raised her head groggily and tried taking in her surroundings. Her face scrunched up immediately, most likely from the smell. She scanned the room until her eyes landed on me. She gave me a suspicious look, but got up slowly. "Who are you?" she asked.

"Someone who wants to help you get out of here," I replied. "I'm Percy Jackson. Your sister, Hylla, is in trouble somewhere on this island. Somehow, I need to make Blackbeard put us all in one jail cell for at least half an hour. And you know this island much more than I do. You can choose what we do, where we go, and everything, but we are heading to your sister."

"I thought you were trying to get Blackbeard to put us all in one jail cell?" she asked.

"I am," I said. "Wherever Blackbeard is, Hylla will be. By the way, what's your name?"

She stayed silent for a few seconds, her eyes trained on me. Then she spoke: "Reyna. My name is Reyna."

I gave her a tight smile. "Now, let's finish cleaning this so they'll let us out. Then we'll strike."

"Or we could just say we're done. Then when they open the door, we strike and escape," she suggested.

My smile got wider. "I like the way you think, Reyna. Let's do this."

* * *

We spent the next five minutes debating about where Hylla could possibly be. I let Reyna take the reins, seeing as she knew this island way better. She suggested many places, but the least expected one would be somewhere close to where we were. Reyna spilled out so many plans and possible deceptions she almost sounded like Annabeth.

She was a little more serious, though. However, it seemed natural, unlike with Annabeth. I couldn't see her being as serious as the girl in front of me. It seemed like being more stern was in her blood. Or maybe it was just because Reyna had dark hair and dark eyes. Blondes tended to be characterized as idiotic or self-centered.

"Those are the possible places we can find my sister," she finished. "But I don't know how to use a weapon. How are we supposed to beat the guards up?"

I bit my lip. "Well, we need a weapon before I can help you. I'm not sure if I can teach you any other way." Then a lightbulb went off in my head. "Unless you can learn in the midst of combat. Trust me, if we surprise them, they won't react as quickly and you won't be killed. Hopefully."

"If I die..." Just like her sister, she left the threat hanging.

"I got your back," I said. "Trust me, even if you hate men."

She took a deep breath. "To tell you the truth, I have weird dreams. And in those weird dreams, I—I learn things, as ridiculous as that sounds. Men and women are equal. No matter what anyone believes, that is what I will think. Circe was a whole bunch of bologna." She laughed a little.

"What's funny?"

"Nothing. Inside joke."

I shook my head. "Anyway, you ready to initiate our plan."

"Yeah," she replied.

I nodded and called loudly, "Hey! We're done in here! Can you let us out now?"

I reached down for my pocket and brought my pen out.

"Wait, what is a pen going to do?" Reyna asked.

Before she could complain more, the door swung open. I uncapped Riptide and sliced at the pirate as my pen elongated into a three-foot-long celestial bronze sword. The good thing was that I smacked him with the flat of my sword so I didn't kill him. Despite the fact they were pirates, they could still die and go to the Underworld.

The pirate got winded and I kneed him in his soft spot. He collapsed to the ground with a pained wheeze.

"How—"

I cut Reyna off. "Grab his weapon. Watch out for pirates trying to kill you! Don't kill them, but swing it like a baseball bat and hope they get knocked out."

She picked up the sword. "Well, how is that supposed to my fighting skills?"

"I don't know! Just _try_ not to kill them." I began to fight the approaching pirates.

There were only four of them guarding us, and we already knocked one of them out, so I gave Reyna the opportunity to learn how to fight. I took on two of the pirates while she took on one.

I parried a thrust at my gut and disarmed him using the technique I'd learned the year before. Then I kicked him down the stairs. I immediately turned to the other one and countered his attack. Unlike the other pirate, though, he was decent with a sword. He slashed at my left hand, which was free of holding anything. I barely dodged the sword and it made a shallow cut along my hand. Then he made two more jabs at my gut.

It was a different style of swordplay, but I could easily pick it up. I blocked a stab and grabbed his sword hand with my left. I winced as a tiny pain shot up my hand, but shook it off. I twisted my left hand and stepped in between his legs with my left foot, seemingly trying to flip him. But it was deception. Instead, I grabbed his head with my right hand and brought it down to my right knee, which was coming up.

I let go of the pirate and he lay on the stone steps groaning and clutching his nose.

I turned around ready to help Reyna, but to my surprise, she was glaring at an unconscious pirate without any cuts or bruises whatsoever. I raised an eyebrow at her.

She looked up and noticed my expression. "What? You said swing like a baseball bat. I swung like it was a baseball bat. By the way, yes, I know what a baseball bat is, otherwise I would've been confused."

"Oh, sorry," I replied. "I just assumed...which was stupid of me."

Reyna nodded. "Now, to find my sister."

* * *

Turns out Blackbeard wasn't what we anticipated. Basically, he wasn't a tactical genius. He kept Hylla far away from Reyna and I so that he could have his own time to himself with her. I couldn't imagine what things he would do if she resisted his approach. It didn't mean I wanted her to give in, but still...

"You know, Circe was right about one thing," Reyna said. "Men are like pigs."

"Thanks."

"Not you." She sniffed the air for a second. "Though you do smell like one. I meant the pirates. I always went into the library to read books so that I know about things that aren't on this island. I've learned so many things that are completely contrary as to what Circe insists."

"You've got good linguistics for a twelve year old."

"You've got good fighting skills for a thirteen year old."

We'd gotten each other's ages correct. Reyna was around a year younger than me. I never found out her godly parent, but she said, "I think I'm a demigod. My sister never told me, though."

I told her that I was the son of Poseidon. She had nodded, but kept a little quieter after that.

"Well, I did grow up on the streets," I shrugged. "My mother died when I was seven. Killed by my uncle." My face darkened.

"You seem to trust me with all of your personal information," she analyzed. "What if I was a spy for your enemy?"

"I'm already known all over the demigod world," I responded. "Probably anyone who talks to the gods and meets creatures and beings who know me will know me. That's why Circe didn't. She isolates herself on this island."

Reyna nodded. "The weirdest things wash up on this island. Once, there was this son of Athena. Of course, Circe turned him into a guinea pig, not one of the ones you released. He'd mentioned many things about a 'mark.' Maybe you know?"

I shook my head. "Sounds as much of a mystery to as to you."

She put her hand up suddenly. "Wait. We're nearing the last spot. This is right next to the harbor. Do you think we could possibly fight our way off the island right now?"

I looked across the harbor. There were no new boats. "I'm not sure. Can either of you guys pilot one of these vessels, cause I can't come with you."

"Why not?"

"You know my friends, the blonde, the black haired girl and the tall boy with sandy-blonde hair?" I asked. She nodded. "Yeah. We're sort of on a mission. But if you and your sister decide not to join the Amazons, whoever they are, you can always—"

I halted myself.

"Always, what?"

"Shh," I whispered. "I hear voices."

From the building we were right in front of, voices echoed in the hallway and bounced out of the building. The voices were getting louder and footsteps along the marble floor were increasing in volume.

"Hide at the other side of the entrance," I ordered Reyna. "When they come out, knock them out quickly, just like you knocked out those seven others. Got it?"

She nodded and we took our positions. Just ten seconds after we took our positions, two lollygagging pirates exited the building. I nodded and Reyna and we sprung into action. I grabbed my guy and slammed him against the marble column of the building. I pinned him to the ground, sat on his chest, stepped on his arms and covered his mouth.

Then I waited for Reyna to take care of her guy. The pirate was totally not expecting a twelve year old girl to knock him out, but he was taken care of swiftly. Reyna ducked under a grab and spun around so that she was behind the guy. Then she "thunder-clapped" the guy, spun _him _around, and hit his jaw with an uppercut so hard that he crumpled to the deck, no questions asked.

It had only been a couple of hours, but Reyna was a quick learner.

She turned to me, nothing blemishing her face except a bruise she had gotten earlier from another pirate.

I grinned at her success and then turned down to the pirate I had sat on. I put a knee on his chest and clamped my hand over his nose _and_ mouth. "Now listen," I told him. "Tell me where Blackbeard and Hylla are right now."

He said something that sounded like, "Never!"

I didn't want to kill the pirates, just for the sake of saving lives, but these were cruel people and more or less, they deserved to die. I looked up at Reyna. "Here's another lesson, Reyna. You have to learn to be strict as well. I was just born extremely forgiving and nice, but you will find times in your life where you want or _need_ to end someone else's. If your gut instinct and every sign around you points to killing them...kill them."

Reyna nodded.

I turned back to the pirate. "Now. Tell me. You've got ten chances."

"Never!" I sensed again. But it was less energetic. He was losing his breath.

I let go of his mouth and nose slightly. I heard his huge intake of breath. When I was sure he got enough oxygen, I smashed his nose and covered his mouth again. Tears formed in his eyes. He was no wimp, but hitting someone's nose in that specific technique will always trigger instinctive tears.

"Now, again," I said calmly. "Where are they?"

He mumbled incoherent words. I smiled and let loose of his mouth. "Good. You learn quickly. Now say that again."

The pirate coughed. "They're down the hall and to the right. In that right hallway'll be a door about twenty feet down on the right side. They're in there. _Di immortales_, Edward'll kill me."

"Son of..."

"Apollo," he replied. "I've never been good at hand-to-hand combat or swordplay."

"Alright. Let's strike a deal," I proposed. "Blackbeard will _never_ bother any of you ever again. The way you say his name, and the way others do, makes it seem like most of you hate him? Did he threaten you or something?"

"Only 'is siblings truly follow him," the son of Apollo replied. "The rest of us were blackmailed into this. But if you and the lass can rid of Blacky, I'd be grateful. Sons of Ares." He shook his head disapprovingly.

"Life lesson number two: being merciful will gain you favor of others," I told Reyna. "Being cruel will only work in sullying your reputation. You'll need to learn when to distinguish the correct times to be forgiving or unforgiving. I'm sure your sister might need these lessons."

The pirate, who was the son of Apollo, nodded approvingly. "I have no idea what he's talkin' about, but he sounds smart. You should listen to 'im, lass." He turned to me. "Well, I'd better be going, lad. Get rid of Blackbeard for all of us who were blackmailed. We'll all be grateful to ya."

I nodded and he trudged off, making his way up the mountain, probably to retrieve his friends and tell them of Blackbeard's incoming death.

"Will we actually kill Blackbeard, Percy?" asked Reyna.

"We just might have to, Reyna," I replied. "We'd be doing the world justice. Ready to get captured? Remember, that's what we planned this for? We need time to talk to Hylla about an escape route."

"Oh, I remember," she said. "It is a stupid idea, but we do need to talk to my sister. Who knows, maybe some of the stuff you learned can be adjusted by her to make them perfect."

I chuckled and began walking down the corridor toward the room. I stopped us at the corner, just in case there were guards there. Sure enough, there was a patrol standing outside of the door. "Damnit," I cursed. "How will we get in there without alerting Blackbeard and having him throw us out?"

"Um, do you know how to throw knives?" Reyna asked from behind me.

"Yeah. Why?"

"You might want to see this."

I turned around and looked at what she was staring at. My jaw dropped when I saw that there was a cupboard (or maybe it was a giant sealed case) full of different kinds of knives: throwing knives, switchblades, cooking knives and much more.

I smiled and grabbed two true, throwing knives. I glanced at Reyna. "Normally, you'd throw this like you're throwing a dodgeball...sort of. You know what dodgeball is, right?"

"Yes."

"Okay. So when you're throwing a knife, where your hand points is where it's going to finish. If you want to kill them, aim for the neck, head, heart, or any other vital organs...or nerves or blood vessels. But if you don't want to and you just want to quickly drop them, aim for places like the shoulder or the hand. Make sure you patch them up after you knock them out, though. You don't want them bleeding out."

She nodded.

"Now, we're going to try it," I said. I turned around the corner and analyzed the positions of the guards. Assuming Reyna threw before me, I could delay for a second before releasing mine. "Okay. So you throw yours first. Make sure you don't run until after I throw mine. I'll handle the guards. Blackbeard will attempt to come out, so before the door even squeaks, open it as hard as you can. It looks like the door swings inward."

"All right."

She stepped out into the middle of the next corridor and aimed a knife.

"Ready?" I whispered. She nodded. "Now!"

I waited about a second after her release before releasing mine. "Go!" I said. Reyna sprinted off in the direction of the guards. I sprinted after her. I quickly caught up and ran past her. I immediately went to the groaning guards and quickly shut them up. Then I started dragging them to the side.

Reyna followed my orders and slammed the door open. I saw her jump into the room like a wild hyena and an outburst from an angry pirate.

"Reyna?!" I heard Hylla call.

"Get off me!" Blackbeard cried. "You're like a swarm of bees! Get off!"

I jumped into the room to see Reyna punching Blackbeard's face until he was bloody and unconscious.

"Reyna?" Hylla said again, this time confused.

Reyna looked down, seemingly in shame. "I'm sorry, Hylla. I know you always say not to be violent, but we needed to save you! It was the only way!"

I watched as Hylla seemed to come to a revelation about herself. "No, Reyna. I should be the one who's sorry. I've been trying to shield you from the true colors of who we are. I should tell you about your godly parent."

"Um, should I leave for this?" I asked.

"No, you can stay," she said. She turned to her sister. "Reyna. Our mother is Bellona, the goddess of war." Reyna gasped. "Yes, Bellona."

I had studies gods and goddesses, but Bellona didn't ring a bell. "Um, who's Bellona. I've never heard of her."

"Of course you haven't," said Reyna. "That's because you're Greek. Bellona is a Roman goddess."

My world went tumbling down a cliff. "Wait, the Greco-Roman rivalry thing. All the stories about Romans sacking Athens and the gods transitioning to different forms is true?"

"You mean, Greeks don't know that Romans are alive?" Reyna asked.

"But neither do the Romans," interrupted Hylla. "For centuries, there are a few who speculate that Greeks are still out there. I never went to that camp as I have always believed men were a bad influence on today's society. Being on Circe's island has made me more aware that neither side knows of each other except for a select few."

"You mean like that son of Athena," Reyna said. "He knew."

"Chosen by the goddess herself," Hylla said. "But when I found this out and talked to Circe about it, she told me that the Romans and Greeks were separated in the American Civil War, a Mist put over them so strong that they forgot about each other. The Mist can wane, though, and some have gotten a sneak peek, like you, Percy and I. I have talked to our mother through dreams. She is completely Roman, but she says that the gods would tear themselves apart if the Greeks and Romans fought. She supports Rome itself, but a war, in her opinion, would lead to disaster. The children of Athena would be brought to warmongers, following Minerva's thirst for revenge. The Roman legion would waste the Greek camp, only to be decimated by the Greek's high spirits. The Romans have never taken children of Neptune and Pluto seriously, only the sons of Jupiter getting recognition; but the Greeks consider all to be powerful. That is why, you cannot tell any normal demigod about this."

"Why have you kept it a secret from me, Hylla?" Reyna asked. "Am I...not trustworthy?"

"It is for your own safety, but now, I must act upon this. I have a special escape plan that Percy cannot use, as this leads to the Roman camp. If Percy were to come, all would become a disaster and war would break out again...unless there was a bigger threat to fight against." Hylla turned to me. "You, Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, must never tell anyone about this. Romans take promises seriously."

I nodded, taking in all of the information. "As a Greek, I swear upon the River Styx to never tell anyone about the Romans except for those who already know...and also if the Greeks find out themselves." Thunder rumbled in the sky.

"The deal is done," Hylla said. A smile broke out on her face. "Maybe not all men are so bad after all."

"Oh!" Reyna suddenly burst. "Percy taught me some cool ways to fight. I could show you."

She laughed, her seriousness crumbling. "If we ever meet in the future, Percy Jackson, I could show you a thing or two about daughters of Bellona."

"It would be an honor."

We said our farewells. It turned out I had forgot about Hylla's quick escape plan to bring Reyna and her off the island quickly. I watched as they left and smiled. Despite only knowing them for about a day, I felt closer to them than ever.

I turned back to Blackbeard's unconscious body. "Don't worry, Hylla. I keep promises."

With a swing of my sword, Blackbeard was beheaded and dead.

* * *

As I stood at the harbor, trying to pick out which boat I should use to get to Polyphemus' Island, I heard a voice call out at my. It sounded a little distant, but close as well.

I looked out at the horizon and saw a large figure moving toward me on some sort of creature on the water. I couldn't make out who it was until I saw the big grin from the rider. My jaw dropped again.

"Percy!" Tyson, the _not-so-dead_ Cyclops, called. "I found you, big brother!"

"Tyson? You're alive!" I exclaimed. "You're alive, big buddy!" Ecstatic, I sprinted and jumped out into the water. I landed with a splash and swam over to Tyson and Rainbow, the hippocampus.

Rainbow the hippocampus—who'd apparently been following us ever since the Long Island Sound, waiting for Tyson to play with him—had found Tyson sinking beneath the wreckage of the CSS _Birmingham _and pulled him to safety. He and Tyson had been searching the Sea of Monsters ever since, trying to find us, until Tyson saw smoke coming from this island. He said he'd wanted to check it out because "wherever smoke is, Percy is. Just like at school in New York!"

"Tyson, thank the gods. Let's get to sheep island. Can you smell sheep? It's like ninety four nautical miles east by southeast of here."

"So..."

"That way." I pointed in the southeast direction.

"Okay!" Tyson agreed happily. Then, Rainbow took off in that direction, Tyson trying to catch the scent of sheep.

For the next ninety-four nautical miles, Tyson and I talked all about what had happened to each of us since the _CSS Birmingham_ exploded. They were fascinating stories, but the best part about all of this was that Tyson was alive. He was back.

* * *

**Hey everyone,**

**This is part two of experiment one. It's like a science experiment except with writing. I kind of wish I could work on my poetry so that I can have Apollo say them. Well, then again, Apollo's poetry is pretty bad... Anyway, thanks for all of your support and I hope that you continue to support this story no matter how bad it may be. :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _any_ excerpts taken from Rick Riordan's book _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters._**

**I'm sorry for those who wanted some drastic change in this story compared to the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan, but I like keeping it closer. Trust me, later on there will be some parts that never happened in the real series, mainly because Percy has more guts from growing up on the streets. He doesn't take sh*t from anyone and is...different. But that will be later.**

**I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	15. I Meet My Other Brother

**Hello everyone,**

**Thank you all for reading my story. Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts from Rick Riordan's _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters_.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**

* * *

**Περσεύς 14**

**I Meet My Other Brother**

When you think "monster island," you think craggy rocks and bones scattered on the beach like the island of the Sirens.

The Cyclops' island was nothing like that. I mean, okay, it had a rope bridge across a chasm, which was not a good sign. You might as well put up a billboard that said, SOMETHING EVIL LIVES HERE.

But except for that, the place looked like a Caribbean postcard. It had green fields and tropical fruit trees and white beaches. As we neared the shore, Tyson breathed in deeply. "Sheepies!" he cried.

"Good, so we're at the right place," I smiled.

My nautical senses also confirmed it. 30 degrees, 31 minutes north, 75 degrees, 12 minutes west.

"Also, the Golden Fleece is here," I told Tyson. "The thing that will save camp."

"Yay!"

Rainbow neighed appreciatively with him.

I couldn't see the Fleece yet, but I could feel its power. I could believe it would heal anything, even the poisoned pine tree at Camp Half-Blood.

"What happens when the Fleece leaves island?" Tyson asked. "Will sheepies go away?"

I shook my head. "Maybe. The island will go back to the way it was before. Maybe the sheep will fade along with the rest of the beauty of this island."

Tyson pouted. "Bye sheepies," he said in a _farewell-like_ voice.

In the meadow at the base of the ravine, several dozen sheep were milling around. They looked peaceful enough, but they were huge—the size of hippos. I guess Tyson would be interested in giant sheep.

Just past them was a path that led up into the hills. At the top of the path, near the edge of the canyon, was the massive oak tree I'd seen in my dreams. Something gold glittered in its branches.

"The Golden Fleece," I said in awe. "You see that, Tyson. Isn't it beautiful?"

"Shiny," he said mesmerized.

Then I noticed a lifeboat that had been run aground just below the sheep meadow. _Clarisse_. I looked around to see if the _Queen Anne's Revenge_ had made it. There was no sign of them. Maybe I shouldn't have sent them off into territory that was strange and not theirs.

"Um, Percy," Tyson said. "Look."

My head snapped back to the sheep where Tyson was pointing to. There a deer had just emerged from the bushes. It trotted into the meadow, probably looking for grass to eat, when the sheep all bleated at once and rushed the animal. It happened so fast that the deer stumbled and was lost in a sea of wool and trampling hooves. Grass and tufts of fur flew into the air. A second later the sheep all moved away, back to their regular peaceful wanderings. Where the deer had been was a pile of clean white bones.

Rainbow neighed nervously.

"Not good sheep," Tyson muttered.

"_Di immortales_," I said. "They're like piranhas with wool."

"We fight them?" Tyson asked.

"No," was my reply. "We need to find Clarisse, Grover, Annabeth, Luke and Thalia." I prayed that somehow Annabeth, Luke and Thalia had made their way to the island somehow.

We got ashore on the back side of the island where the cliffs rose straight up a good two hundred feet. That way, we could climb the cliffs and avoid the sheep. But when we reached there, my wish had come true. The _Queen Anne's Revenge_ was floating out in the middle of the waters around the island with its anchor dropped. My friends had reached the island.

The only problem was that I realized they were now in trouble.

"Rainbow, go out and find some friends," I ordered the hippocampus. "Preferably four."

He neighed and disappeared into the waters of the Sea of Monsters. I turned to Tyson. "Ready to climb?"

He nodded eagerly. "Climb time! Me first?"

"Go ahead buddy."

I came close to dying six or seven times, which was pretty good for me.

There was once when Tyson had snapped a piece of rock off the side of the cliff and it fell down at me, almost killing me. I narrowly avoided the falling rock as it whizzed by my face.

Once, I lost my grip and I found myself dangling by one hand from a ledge fifty feet above the rocky surf. But I found another handhold and kept climbing.

Finally, when my fingers felt like molten lead and my arm muscles were shaking from exhaustion, we hauled ourselves over the top of the cliff and collapsed.

"Ugh," I said.

"Fun!" Tyson exclaimed when he saw me.

"Not really, buddy," I chuckled.

"Garrr!" bellowed another voice_._

If I hadn't been so tired, I would've leaped another two hundred feet. I whirled around, but I couldn't see who'd spoken.

The ledge we were sitting on was narrower than I'd realized. It dropped off on the opposite side, and that's where the voice was coming from—right below us.

"Percy," Tyson whispered. "Hat."

"Not the time!"

"You're a feisty one!" the deep voice bellowed.

"Challenge me!" Clarisse's voice, no doubt about it.

"Give me back my sword and I'll fight you!"

The monster roared with laughter.

I crept to the edge. We were right above the entrance of the Cyclops's cave. Below us stood Polyphemus and Grover, still in his wedding dress. Clarisse was tied up, hanging upside down over a pot of boiling water. Tied up with her, were Annabeth, Luke and Thalia.

"I'll zap you to Tartarus!" Thalia screamed.

"This is just like Brooklyn," Luke called.

"I wanna kill Percy," Annabeth said.

Polyphemus ignored them all. "Hmm," he pondered. "Eat loudmouth girl, zappy freak, Brooklyn boy and _kill-Percy_ girl now or wait for wedding feast? What does my bride think?"

He turned to Grover, who backed up and almost tripped over his completed bridal train. "Oh, um, I'm not hungry right now, dear. Perhaps—"

"Did you say _bride?" _Clarisse demanded. "Who—Grover?"

"Shut up!" A hoarse whisper echoed up the cave.

The monster growled. "Grover? Who is Grover?"

"The satyr!" Clarisse yelled.

"Oh!" Grover yelped. "The poor thing's brain is boiling from that hot water. Pull her down, dear!"

Polyphemus' eyelids narrowed over his baleful milky eye, as if he were trying to see Clarisse more clearly.

The Cyclops was an even more horrible sight than he had been in my dreams. Partly because his rancid smell was now up close and personal. Partly because he was dressed in his wedding outfit—a crude kilt and shoulder-wrap, stitched together from baby-blue tuxedos, as if the he'd skinned an entire wedding party.

"What satyr?" asked Polyphemus. "Satyrs are good eating. You bring me a satyr?"

"No, you big idiot!" bellowed Clarisse._"That _satyr! Grover! The one in the wedding dress!"

"No!" Tyson suddenly yelled. Before I could stop him, he got up and entered the cave. "Don't hurt my friends!"

I wanted so badly to call Tyson back, but that would just blow my cover.

"Tyson?" Annabeth said surprised.

Polyphemus squinted at him. His face morphed into surprise when he realized Tyson was a Cyclops. "Little brother? What are you doing?"

"Don't hurt my friends!" he said again. "Not all Cyclopes as bad as we look."

"What are you talking about?"

"You are hurting my friends! You are bad!"

Tyson ran up to Polyphemus and began fist-fighting with him. Tyson landed two punches at Polyphemus' face before my other brother started fighting back. They landed punch after punch on each other, so similar that they were locked in a draw.

"Run Grover!" Annabeth yelled.

As Tyson and Polyphemus threw each other at the wall Grover was at, Grover scampered away from them. A rock somehow got stuck on his dress and tore it off of his body. It was a good thing that under it was his regular mortal clothing: jeans and a T-shirt.

Polyphemus spun his head toward the running Grover. "YOU'RE—NO—LADY—CYCLOPS!" he yelled. Then Tyson threw an uppercut that nailed him right in the chin. Polyphemus flew backwards and staggered to his feet. "Why, little brother? Why work with the filthy humans? They're lying, deceiving, tricking—"

"My friends!" Tyson said again, throwing a hard punch at Polyphemus' gut. It looked like the Cyclops got winded. "They are my friends!"

"Bah!" said Polyphemus. "Look at this brother. Together, we can have the yummy satyrs to eat. Don't you like to eat satyrs. Yummy, tasty. They taste like goat. Help me, little one. We can have yummy sheepies and satyrs. They good eating!"

"Don't listen to him Tyson!" Luke yelled. "Grover is Percy's friend."

"Be quiet, Brooklyn-boy!" Polyphemus yelled and smacked at my friends. They went flying further into the cave.

"Hat!" He turned to the entrance, to me. "Hat! Help!" Then Polyphemus tackled him and they went sprawling into the side of the cave.

Meanwhile, Grover was scampering along the side of the cave, trying to make his way down to my fallen friends and Clarisse. I wanted to call him and say that I was coming down, but if I wanted to save them without being crushed by a boulder, I would have to go in silently.

_Hat_, Tyson had said. At that moment, something clicked in my mind. Annabeth wasn't wearing her hat when she was tied up over the boiling pot. That could only mean...

I turned to my right and saw that Annabeth's New York Yankees cap was sitting on the ground right next to me, which meant she had to have ripped her jeans' pocket so that it would fall out. The logo of the baseball team was facing down toward the ground.

I smiled and put in on my head. I held out my arms, but I couldn't see them. I whispered to myself, "Oh, yeah. This is going to be fun."

I quickly entered the cavern and attempted to find my friends. At first, I thought that it was just one big room with a small hole in the wall where Grover spun his bridal train, but it was like a giant house.

Even though I'd dreamed about this place, I had a hard time finding my way through the maze. I ran down corridors littered with bones, past rooms full of sheepskin rugs and life-size cement sheep that I recognized as the work of Medusa. There were collections of sheep T-shirts; large tubs of lanolin cream; and wooly coats, socks, and hats with ram's horns.

Suddenly, I stumbled upon the spinning room where it turned out all of them had landed in here. Everyone had been trying to cut each other's bonds, but were unsuccessful. I saw that Clarisse, Annabeth, Thalia and Luke were in here. Grover was nowhere to be seen. Then a furry figure turned a corner and crashed into me like a bowling ball into a bowling pin.

The hat somehow stayed on my head and I kept invisible.

Grover, however, was mystified as to why he'd crashed into "air."

"What the—"

"Grover!" Annabeth called. "Help us!"

The others seemed to think he'd tripped on his own. He looked around strangely, but I grabbed his hand before he walked away. He froze.

"Grover?"

"Stop, friend," I told Grover. "You'll never be able to cut those bonds without any weapons."

I remembered that Grover and I had a empathy link with each other. I smiled and sent all of my emotions and senses to him. Then I tapped his wrist twice. He gasped.

"Uh, Grover..? What's the matter?" Thalia asked.

I pulled off Annabeth's baseball cap and I became visible.

"Percy!" everyone shouted, mostly of surprise, some disbelief and some relief. Clarisse looked pissed but relieved at the same time. It was a weird combination but it was definitely on her face. Luke's face was the most neutral of everyone's. He had one look of disbelief on his face, nothing else. Thalia's face was surprised and relieved. Annabeth's face was the weirdest of them all. She was surprised, disbelieving and relieved all at the same time.

"Percyyyyyy!" Grover bleated and tackled me in a bear hug (or was it a _goat_ hug). "You came! Thank the gods!"

Everyone stared for another minute before Clarisse growled, "Get me out of these bonds, you idiot! I wanna rip that Cyclops' arms off and tear them off. I wanna shove 'em down his throat!"

I nodded and cut off the bonds of everybody else. Annabeth first, Thalia next, Luke third and then Clarisse.

When I cut off Clarisse's bonds, she glared for a moment before looking at the ground and mumbling, "Thanks."

"You're welcome, you guys," I said. "Are you guys all right? Nothing really hurt or damaged?"

"Nah," Luke said, brushing off the dust from his shirt. "We're okay. Is Tyson doing okay out there? He's not hurt or unconscious or anything, right?"

I stayed silent for a little bit trying to listen for any noises of punching, kicking or struggling from the Cyclopes. A chilly feeling entered my gut when I didn't hear anything. As the feeling grew, I turned to my friends and waited a couple seconds before yelling, "Scatter!"

I sprinted out of the room and down a random hall as the wall of the spinning room exploded, and with a mighty roar, Polyphemus crashed into the room. "Pestering humans! I will eat you all!" he roared.

I ran around the corner and hid behind a wall for temporary cover. "What did you do to Tyson!" I yelled.

There was no response from the Cyclops.

I waited a few more seconds before running in a different direction. I tried to make my way back to the main room but I got lost a whole bunch of times. I somehow ended up in a room where satyr bones were hung up on display like a museum. It was sickening.

"Help, Percy!" I heard Annabeth yell.

I suddenly stopped and turned toward the sound. "Annabeth?"

"No!" she yelled from a different location. "It's the Cyclops! He's trying to lure you! Don't listen to him!"

An explosion echoed through the cave, followed by multiple screams. Then another explosion, and a goat bleating. There was incoherent shouting followed by a fifth scream. The sounds seemed to echo all across the walls and come from all directions. The shouting and screaming confused me, but I did what I had to do. I went to the cave entrance. And when I reached there, I saw all of my friends lying on the rocks either unconscious or badly injured.

The worst part was that Polyphemus was strangling Tyson. And Tyson wasn't resisting.

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**Hey everyone,**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter. It's kind of short but whatever. Thanks for the hundreds who've favorited (I don't think this is a word, but it sounds better than "who've favorite"), followed and reviewed.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _any_ excerpts taken from Rick Riordan's book _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters._**

**I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	16. Nobody Gets the Fleece

**Hello everyone,**

**Thank you all for reading my story. Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts from Rick Riordan's _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters_.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**

* * *

**Περσεύς 15**

**Nobody Gets the Fleece**

Remember how I said that "all of my friends" were "lying on the rocks either unconscious or badly injured"?

Yeah...I meant _friends_. You know, like..._friends_.

Still don't get it? It meant Clarisse wasn't there. She wasn't my friend but more of a temporarily allied rival. I wasn't sure where the daughter of Ares was, but I sure felt glad she wasn't down. There was no way I could take on the Cyclops myself and last long enough for Tyson to bring all of my other friends to safety.

Plus the fact that Tyson was being strangled by a Cyclops millennia older than him didn't help the cause for saving my friends. The temporary shock that had reached me when I saw my hurt friends and my choking brother finally passed and I attempted to bolt into action. A hand on my shoulder stopped me.

"Don't think you're fighting that thing alone," Clarisse said.

I spun around. The daughter of Ares had a cut that snaked along the side of her right face. It didn't look too bad, but it was still bleeding.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Never better," she muttered. "Let's kill that Cyclops and save our—your friends."

I smiled at her unintended fault. "Attack plan Macedonia," I ordered, still smiling.

She nodded. We'd taken the same training courses at Camp Half-Blood. She knew what I was talking about. She would sneak around one side and attack the Cyclops from the flanks while I held his attention in the front. This could probably give Tyson enough time to catch his breath and help my friends.

"You have a weapon?" I asked.

She smirked and pulled out her sword and a ram's horn spear from behind her back. "Let's do this." And we sprung into action.

I hefted my sword and shouted, "Hey, Ugly!"

Polyphemus turned to me. He narrowed his eyes. "Who are _you_?"

I quickly tried to think of an insult. You see, I'm not the best person to ask if you want to insult someone. In fact, I was probably the worst insult-creator in the entire universe. Luckily, an old legend popped into my mind before it was too late and Polyphemus charged at me. "I'm Nobody. Don't you remember me?"

"_You!_" he bellowed. "I remember _you!_"

The good news: Polyphemus let go of Tyson and my brother started coughing and gasping for air. The bad news: Polyphemus barreled toward me, a thousand smelly pounds of Cyclops that I would have to fight with a very small sword.

"Gods, I hope my training has paid off," I muttered. "Clarisse!"

Clarisse ran in from the left and set her spear against the ground just in time for the Cyclops to step on it. He wailed in pain, and Clarisse dove out of the way to avoid getting trampled. But the Cyclops just plucked out the shaft like a large splinter and kept advancing on me.

I moved in with Riptide.

The monster made a grab for me. I rolled aside and stabbed him in the thigh. Then I quickly ran up his leg and stabbed his stomach.

He howled in pain and shook me off. I landed on the cold floor of the cave with a grunt. It was a good thing I didn't go too far otherwise I probably would've broken a few ribs. I got up and watched the Cyclops glare at me with furious eyes. He began to advance.

I looked over at Tyson, who was lying on the floor, now facing me. His eyes were desperate, looking like he'd been on the verge of death; but noticing I was watching him, he tried getting up, struggling to with his shortened breath.

"Help Annabeth! Help Thalia, Luke and Grover!" I yelled at him. "Take your time!"

Polyphemus whirled around. He took a step toward Tyson again. But I could stand to lose Tyson a second time. "Hey! Pay attention to _me_!" I yelled at the Cyclops.

He stopped and hesitated. "Little brother must die first. Biggest threat." And he continued toward Tyson, slowing breaking into a jog.

Clarisse burst into action again and stabbed Polyphemus right in the back of his knee. The older Cyclops bellowed in pain and swiped backward. He narrowly missed her, but his hand hit the giant olive tree behind her. It collapsed backward and fell to the ground with such a crash, it shook the land and Clarisse's ankle twisted under her.

She made a short cry of pain, but otherwise contained it.

The position of everyone now was now half outside, half inside. Clarisse and I were outside, sneaking around the side of the cave to get to the front. The rest were inside, having crashed through walls and thrown around like ragdolls.

Tyson was now standing and Polyphemus had his attention fixed on Clarisse. I locked my eyes with his one eye. _Go!_ I urged with my eyes. _Help them!_

He took a deep intake of breath and continued forward. His breaths seemed raggedy and short, but he made quick progress toward my injured friends.

"Clarisse!" I called. "Can you fight?"

"Yeah, I can—" She grimaced when she took a step with her injured ankle.

"Help Tyson!" I yelled. "I'll take on ass-face."

Polyphemus growled. "Annoying girl hurt herself. Not good for wife. Wedding cancelled!" He grabbed a boulder and raised it above his shoulder to hurl at Clarisse. I saw as her eyes widened and she attempted to scramble out of the way. Despite our past fights and conflicts, I didn't want Clarisse to die. To be honest, we were..."frenemies."

But there was no way I could save her. I was too far away to stop the Cyclops from throwing the rock.

The ground seemed to hum and everything turned into slow motion. Polyphemus' arm was now extended completely and ready to throw. The ground hummed even more and a gut feeling in my stomach sharpened. Instinctively (well, now it is), I punched the ground and it started shaking.

As ripples of earth shook, time returned back to normal and now the entire island was shaking. Polyphemus had a surprised look on his face as he fell backward back into the cave. The boulder he was holding was dropped onto the ground and created another shaking. He crashed into the ground and rolled back into the destruction that was his home. He missed knocking Tyson over so my brother could help carry Thalia, Grover, Annabeth and Luke. Then the shaking stopped.

Tyson almost dropped them when he picked them up because his muscles probably were weak from the lack of oxygen. I hoped Cyclopes worked the same way as humans...sort of. But he eventually picked them up and made his way out of the cave.

I was too busy staring at myself in awe to realize that Clarisse had run down the hill, was hobbling across the rope bridge to the other side of the chasm, and was calling at me: "Percy, you idiot! Get over here!"

Slowly, my brain registered her voice and I followed Tyson as he began walking across the bridge. I turned around every few seconds to make sure Polyphemus wasn't following us.

"Tyson!" I said. "Wanna call for Rainbow or take the ship back?"

"Rainbow," Tyson grunted. "Call for Rainbow."

"ROAAR!" a voice bellowed from behind me. I turned around to see a furious Cyclops charging toward us. His milky-white eye fiercely glared at me as he reduced the distance.

"Tyson! Go!" I shouted, urging him to go faster. Polyphemus would soon be right on our tail and that would just mean our impending deaths. The Cyclops was halfway down the hill to the bridge.

Tyson increased the speed slightly, trying to use up all of his remaining energy in getting our friends to safety. Not only was Clarisse brave, but Tyson was too. He had come close to dying once barely five minutes ago and he was already trying to sap his energy just to save the others. He was like a martyr.

"Cut the ropes, Clarisse!" I shouted. "Cut them!"

She looked up from her hurt ankle and noticed the charging Cyclops. She nodded grimly and grabbed her sword. With a quick slice, the first of the two ropes holding the bridge went _snap!_ As Polyphemus bounded after us, he reached the bridge, making it sway wildly.

Tyson jumped for the land that was so very close to us. He landed, rolled and let go of my friends. All of them landed flat on their backs. Clarisse cut the other rope and the bridge fell away into the chasm. The Cyclops howled...with delight, because he was standing right next to us.

"Failed!" he yelled gleefully. "Nobody failed!"

I looked back at my friends, even Clarisse. She looked dead tired and shook her head when I looked at her. The rest of them were all lying on the ground, either unconscious or groaning. Polyphemus was grinning wildly. "No more tricks from Nobody," he said.

He was somewhat right. I did fail to get Polyphemus to fall into the chasm. All of my friends were unable to fight anymore. But I did have a trick up my sleeve. And that was anger.

He may have been a Cyclops, like Tyson, but he was a different kind of Cyclops. He was greedy, luring satyrs to this island with the Golden Fleece, and eating them when they got here. _He _was the cause of my friends' injuries. _He_ was the reason why Grover was caught in the first place. It wasn't that I didn't want the Golden Fleece. It just would have been a lot less troublesome.

"Actually, I do have one," I said. Strength coursed through my body. I raised my sword and attacked, forgetting that I was hopelessly outmatched. I jabbed the Cyclops in the belly. When he doubled over I smacked him in the nose with the hilt of my sword. I slashed and kicked and bashed until the next thing I knew, Polyphemus was sprawled on his back, dazed and groaning, and I was standing above him, the tip of my sword hovering over his eye.

"Uhhhhhhhh," Polyphemus moaned.

"Please, noooo!" the Cyclops moaned, pitifully staring up at me.

His nose was bleeding. A tear welled in the corner of his half-blind eye. "M-m-my sheepies need me. Only trying to protect my sheep!"

He began to sob.

I had won. All I had to do was stab—one quick strike.

"Kill him!" Clarisse yelled. "What are you waiting for?"

"He's a Cyclops!" Grover warned. "Don't trust him!" Then he looked at Tyson. "Except for him."

Then it occurred to me—he was a son of Poseidon too. Could I really kill him in cold blood?

_You killed Blackbeard_, a voice in my head said. _The Cyclops is just like him. Kill the Cyclops. He doesn't deserve to live. Remember, he hurt your friends_. _Be merciful only if you get something in return. Saving a good life is worth it. Saving a corrupted one isn't._

"Maybe you should have thought about that before you did all of the terrible things you've done," I told the sobbing Cyclops. "Maybe if you had better merits. You may be a son of Poseidon, but I've always judged by merits, not background. Tell me, would you have given the Fleece back to some of your less fortunate brothers selflessly?"

The Cyclops just continued sobbing.

"I thought so."

"Please!" he cried. "No!"

I stabbed Polyphemus right through the heart. The Cyclops was dead.

My face grim, I turned to Tyson, who was now sitting up. "Tyson. Can you get the Fleece?"

He turned to the flock of sheep. "Which one?"

"In the tree!" I said. "The gold one!"

"Oh. Pretty. Yes." He seemed to have almost caught his breath back, which was incredible.

Tyson lumbered over, careful not to step on the sheep. If any of us had tried to approach the Fleece, we would've been eaten alive, but I guess Tyson smelled like Polyphemus, because the flock didn't bother him at all. They just cuddled up to him and bleated affectionately, as though they expected to get sheep treats from the big wicker basket.

Tyson reached up and lifted the Fleece off its branch. Immediately the leaves on the oak tree turned yellow. Tyson started wading back toward me, but I yelled, "No time! Throw it!"

The gold ram skin sailed through the air like a glittering shag Frisbee. I caught it with a grunt. It was heavier than I'd expected—sixty or seventy pounds of precious gold wool.

I laid it across Luke. Yeah, Luke. He would get to have the Golden Fleece wrapped around him. It was a privilege. That was because I was going to heal Annabeth and Thalia using my water powers, and also because I needed help getting the other two down to the beach and Luke was the least injured.

Meanwhile, Tyson was starting to have trouble with the sheep. "Down!" he told them as they tried to climb him, looking for food. A few were sniffing in our direction. "No, sheepies. This way! Come here!"

They heeded him, but it was obvious they were hungry, and they were starting to realize Tyson didn't have any treats for them. They wouldn't hold out forever with so much fresh meat nearby.

I looked down the path that the sheep blocked. That was the way down to the back of the island where the _Queen Anne's Revenge_ would be. But closer, still down that path, was the ravine where the lifeboats had landed. That was the only beach on the island that I could see.

"Tyson!" I called. "Lead them down the path to the water!"

"To the water?"

"Yes!"

He whistled. "Come, sheepies! Um, people food this way!"

He led the sheep down the path toward the beach.

"Percy?" a voice said behind me. It was Luke. "You—you made it. How did you make it? You—"

"Shut up, Luke," I chuckled. "Keep the Fleece around you. Your injuries don't look that serious so if you can help carry Thalia or Annabeth, help them."

He tried getting up, but fell back down. "No. I'm not up to it, yet."

I thought about it for a moment. "Clarisse, are you good enough to defend?" She nodded. "All right. Take care of Luke and the other two. I'll be right back."

I took off for the beach where Tyson should have led the sheep. The carnivorous sheep couldn't exactly be killed in sword-to-teeth combat, but I could use my Poseidon powers to engulf the monster sheep and send them off into the ocean to drown. Normally, I wouldn't do that to sheep, but these were a special case.

When I arrived there, I saw Tyson scrambling away from aggressive sheep who were baring their teeth. They almost seemed like hungry dogs waiting for their treats. "Tyson, watch out!" I yelled as I reached out with my hand. I concentrated on the waves as sheep's heads turned to me. Tyson ran out of the way.

When the first sheep advanced towards me, I let a yell loose and a ten-foot wave crashed onto shore, sucking up all of the sheep on the island. Tyson had dove out of harm's way and ran towards me with a bone-crushing hug. "You saved me, big brother!" he said happily.

"Can't breathe," I choked. When he let go of me, and I re-caught my breath, I smiled at him. "Yeah, I guess I did. Now let's save the others."

HORIZONTAL

It took two hours for me to finally heal Annabeth and Thalia. By the time I was finished, I was dead tired. Healing people with broken bones and bruises is harder than you'd think.

"Percy!" Annabeth hugged me when I told her she was finally healed. "How did you make it off the island? Who did you have to save?"

Thalia smiled at me. I could tell it was fake. "Yeah, Percy. Tell us who you abandoned us for."

"Look, I'm sorry, but I promised to save them," I replied. "I prayed to my father that you would have a safe journey through the Sea of Monsters. It worked!"

She just scoffed. "That's totally why I got a dream message from him threatening me that if anything I did was off, he would report me to Olympus and have me executed immediately."

"Really? He said that?"

"No, but he did warn me that a lot was on the line and that if you were killed, all the pressure would be shifted on to me. He asked me if I was ready for the pressure, or if I wanted fate to continue its course."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"I have no idea. But it doesn't sound too great."

"Ow!" Clarisse said after trying to nurse her ankle. In all the healing of Thalia and Annabeth I completely forgot about Clarisse's injured ankle.

"Are you sure you're okay?" I asked. "I can heal that for you."

She shook her head. "No, it's fine. I can handle the pain. I've had worse injuries." She grimaced again after touching a sensitive spot near the heel of her foot.

"Oh, come on," I said. "Let me have a crack at it. I'm not _that_ tired. And besides, what are friends for, huh?"

"Friends?" She raised an eyebrow. I shrugged.

"Why not?"

I helped Clarisse to the water's edge and dipped her foot into the ocean water. I could feel the strength entering my body. I grabbed Clarisse's foot and pressed on the spots that hurt most.

"Ow! I thought you said you were going to heal it?"

"And I thought you said you've had worse injuries?"

She said nothing and I smiled, tasting victory for the second time today. I slowly dug into her fibula, the bone at the joint of the ankle right above the heel...kinda. It didn't seem broken or fractured, but more of a sprained ankle.

"Tell me when it doesn't hurt anymore." I squeezed her ankle hard, keeping pressure on the bones.

She winced at first, but after two minutes passed, she sighed contentedly. "Not a bad job, Jackson. Doesn't mean you're off the hook, though."

"We'd better be going," Grover said, finally breaking the silence that my other friends had created. They were all staring at me weirdly, as if I was now an alien, someone they'd never seen before.

"Rainbow!" Tyson laughed happily. "Call for Rainbow!"

"How does a ride on a hippocampus sound?" I asked my friends.

Annabeth nodded. "They're beautiful...and surprisingly comfortable to lie on." She yawned. "I could really use a nap after this exhausting day."

Thalia and Luke looked at each other. "Sure, why not?" they said.

Grover nodded his consent. I looked over at Clarisse, who was the last to give her opinion. "As long as I get to ride by myself, I'm up for the ride."

"I'll take that as a yes."

I jumped into the water and yelled into the ocean. Sound waves echoed through the water from my reverberating thought and I saw five dark shapes form in the distance. I waved frantically in the water. Rainbow and his friends immediately caught sight of me. _Up!_ I yelled at them.

Then I shot myself toward the surface and broke it like a dolphin would. I waved in mid-air and landed back into the water. I laughed to myself and saw to the shore where my friends were laughing.

"You totally looked like a dolphin," Luke said. "Except for the waving part."

I grinned and turned in time to see majestic fish-tailed horses burst to the surface right ashore. The largest one, Rainbow, whinnied when he caught sight of Tyson. "Rainbow!" the ecstatic Cyclops exclaimed. Tyson ran to Rainbow and started petting him.

"Grab your own hippocampus, Clarisse," I said. "Tyson will get Rainbow and everyone else can share. Grover might be able to get his own if partnered up correctly."

"I'll go with Luke!" Annabeth claimed.

The son of Hermes looked surprised for a second, but his surprise turned into a playful smile. "Sure, Annie. Let's go. Which one do you want? Personally, I'd like that one."

And so, Annabeth and Luke paired up.

I heard Thalia approach me from behind. "Huh. Sounds like they're doing better every day. Maybe they _will_ end up together. That'd be nice for them, don't you think? Unless, of course, you want Luke for yourself."

"I have a lot to tell you," she said. "Wanna share?"

HORIZONTAL

"So, on the ship, after you sent us off, Luke and I immediately started fighting," she told me. "It was purely because we'd argued a lot at that point. At first, it was because I rejected him. He was angry so we'd argued. But I could tell he grew over that. He still pestered me about dating him, but I continuously told him that Annabeth would be heartbroken. I asked him to give Annabeth a chance and so he did. It turns out that now he likes both of us. He came to me for help and he ended up trying to kiss me. Annabeth saw. I'm just really stuck now. We still talk and everything, but it's like the preceding of war. Tensions rise and everything." She held her forehead. "I don't know what to do."

We were riding on a hippocampus together, Thalia in the front, me in the back. She was talking to an invisible person in front of her, but meant to speak to me. She just said it would be weird to sit backwards.

"Why am I involved in this again?"

"Because you told me to reject Luke!"

"No. I said that you should think about what you're doing to Annabeth by having feelings for Luke. Your decisions just turned it into a mess. Now Luke likes both of you, Annabeth and you are competing for his feelings and I'm stuck here dealing with this like it's my fault. _You're _the one who kissed me!"

"I was not!"

"Yeah, you were. Maybe if you didn't mess my crappy feelings up, I would've been able to help you."

She blinked and stopped speaking for a moment. "Wait, did you just say you have feelings for me?"

"No," I denied. "I didn't say that. When did I say that?"

"Just now!"

"No, I didn't."

"Uh, yes, you did."

"No, I didn't."

"Stop lying, Kelp Head!"

"Bird brain!"

"Prissy!"

"Pinecone Face!"

"Shut up, you two!" yelled Clarisse. "And Thalia, don't steal my nickname for Percy!"

We shut up.

"Listen," Thalia said. "I know I messed things up badly, but I just don't know what to do right now."

"Treat Luke as a friend and treat Annabeth as you normally would," I said. "Keep your feelings in check. If you want to date Luke, break Annabeth's heart, and get the guy of your dreams. If you want Annabeth to be happy, break your own heart, and get your friend's biggest crush to date her. You have to decide whether it's you that matters, or if it's your friend that matters more. Sacrifice or not. There are two ways out of this, Thalia: death or a choice."

"Help me turn around," she said after a minute of silence.

I did as she asked.

We were silent for another ten minutes. Everyone around us was asleep, all exhausted from the day's events.

"Tell me, then." I leaned closer to Thalia. "Tell me what you admire and love about Luke Castellan. Then tell me what you detest about him. Tell everything."

"And why should I?"

"It will make my decision easier, and you will feel better. Who knows? Maybe you'll come to a decision before I even have to tell you any advice." I brushed my hair with my hand. "Perhaps you'll even find someone who fits Luke's criteria even better than Luke does."

She hesitated for a second but gave in.

"Luke." She sighed. "Tall, for one. I don't know why, but I just like that he's tall...well, kind of. He _is_ older than me by a couple of years. He has nice hair that he doesn't really care about. It's just naturally like that." She pointed over at Luke, who was leaning on Annabeth's back. "I don't really care about the color, though. He is _very_ good-looking. He's always so good-natured and charming. Luke is happy and somewhat carefree. He's pretty much perfect in every way. But that was before."

"Before?"

She sighed again. "Yeah. Now, ever since Ethan left camp, he's become distant. I think he really trusted Ethan and the fact that Ethan was a servant for the enemy, he's lost his trust in a lot of people. I'm sure he still trusts all of us, but he's changed. That's for sure. He used to be more extroverted. Now he's a little more introverted." She frowned. "Now that I think about it, he is becoming a little different. Well, he's still a very good fighter that I can beat and is probably one of the best liars, actors and thieves in the entire world."

"Really?"

"Yup," she said. "I love the way he always treats me like an individual, but an even individual. I'm not _the daughter of Zeus_, or some random Goth girl. I'm Thalia, to him. Just Thalia. He knows me so well, and I know him so well. There's no way that he could ever disappoint us _ever_. If that happened, either I'm dreaming or it's the end of the world." She laughed.

"I don't know, Percy," she frowned. "I don't know how I can stop liking him." She blinked hard a few times. "I—I can't!"

I held my arms out and she took them. As we hugged, she said, "And he's always there for me. No matter what happens. He'll find his way back, give me advice, and do his best to console me. He'll risk his life for me, even when I don't want him to. He may disappear, but he'll always find his way back. Always."

I looked on, out into the distance. "Maybe he _will_ come back to you, Thalia." I felt something stir inside me as tears from Thalia's eyes leaked onto my skin, and her warm breath on my chest initiated a feeling. "If you love something, let it go. If it comes back, keep it. If it doesn't, it was never yours. And my final touch, if you think you love someone you don't, tragedy will occur, the giddiness of Aphrodite unleashed upon the twisting and turning knots of the element we call love. Be careful, Thalia."

"I will, Percy. Good night."

Despite the fact that it was still the afternoon, I fixated Thalia in a comfortable position on the hippocampus and wished her good night. I kissed her cheek and leaned on her back.

Then dreams enveloped me.

* * *

**Hey everyone,**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter. It's kind of short but whatever. Thanks for the hundreds who've put this on their favorites, followed and reviewed.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _any_ excerpts taken from Rick Riordan's book _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters._**

**I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	17. Surprises on Miami Beach

**Hello everyone,**

**Thank you all for reading my story. Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts from Rick Riordan's _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters_.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**

* * *

**Περσεύς 16**

**Surprises on Miami Beach**

The dreams were the usual.

When my dream-self opened his eyes, I was back down at the edge of Tartarus. It had become such a reoccurring dream that talking to the Titan Lord was getting kind of boring. He said the same thing every time. This time was a little different.

"Son of Poseidon," he rasped. "Are you sure you know what you are doing?"

"What do you mean?" I replied.

"Do you even know why the camp was poisoned in the first place? Do you know why Ethan and I knew about the quest and the coordinates?" he asked. He laughed, which sounded like a chainsaw trying to cut a giant slab of rock. "I have asked you many times before whether your faith in the gods has ever waned. Now I ask you, can you trust your own friends? Do you know if they have defected or not?"

I slowly thought about that. "No. My friends wouldn't betray the gods. They've said so many times."

Kronos laughed again. He didn't say anything for a while. All he did was laugh. It was a creepy aura that emanated from him. But his laughing did continue to make me think whether some of my friends, at camp or with me on the quest, were spies for Kronos. I remembered back to Chris Rodriguez, who hung out with Travis and Connor Stoll often. He switched sides. There had to have been countless more.

Could it be Luke? He'd been so distant ever since Ethan left, just like Thalia had said. He was never the same. That was true. He did hang out with us during school, but could it all have been a lie. Could he have been acting? Thalia _did_ say he was one of the best liars and actors in the world.

"Self-doubt, eh?" he said. I could almost feel his smirk. "You have every right to, son of Poseidon. You may not feel the pain of betrayal yet, but I promise you that you will soon. You will regret not joining my cause. But you can't pin the blame on the betrayer, the defector. It all comes back to one major thing: the gods."

I stayed silent, pondering over his words.

"Be aware, Percy Jackson," he snarled. "Pain will come to you soon, but not in the way you'd think."

With an evil laugh, my dream-self was pulled back by an invisible force and blackness surrounded me. When I awoke, I was in the presence of three gods: Hades, Zeus and Poseidon.

"Nephew," my uncles spoke.

"Son," my father said.

"A message is brought to you by the Fates," Hades said robotically.

In a similar robotic voice, Zeus said, "To give a glimpse of what is to come."

My father looked down at me with stern eyes. "But not to save it, to endure you must."

The three gods swirled into a mist, forming clouds of water vapor where they had once stood. They swirled gently, like the gentle breeze of a summer day blowing around the clouds in the sky. They swirled calmly, like the opposite of Charybdis. Then a bolt of electricity cracked and the mist exploded in puffs of smoke. The smoke slowly swirled and merged together, beginning to form shapes. Raspy voices began emerging from the smoke.

"Percy Jackson," a voice hissed.

The voice sounded ancient, yet not evil. It just seemed like a voice that was very old.

The smoky shapes began to solidify into real figures. After waiting half a minute more, the shapes became obvious. There were three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs, sharing a giant ball of electric-blue yarn. The two ladies on the side were knitting socks while the one in the middle held a giant pair of scissors. I knew who these ancient ladies were. They were the Fates.

"Percy Jackson," the one in the middle said. Her voice sounded ancient and powerful, as it should have. Not even the gods and Titans could defy fate. "Looking into the future is dangerous, but we see what might happen if not warned beforehand: destruction, chaos, bitter resentment."

The one on the right stared at me. "Death envelops everyone, different people at different times. You must understand fate is fate, and you cannot stop what will happen. Remember that clearly."

Then the one in the middle snipped the blue string and my world dissolved.

Raspy voices in the background yelled at me. "I love you. I'll always be in your heart. Right here," a scratchy version of my mother's voice said.

"Percy!" a familiar female voice called. _Viola_. "Help!"

"I'm in the Sea of Monsters!" Grover called.

Annabeth was next. "You're the only one left." I remembered that conversation back at camp when we were trying to team up for the chariot race.

"Do you even know what's in store for you on your sixteenth birthday, Percy?" Ethan laughed. "Do you know what the gods have planned for you?"

"Are the gods truly better than the Titans?" Kronos asked.

"I—I can't decide," Thalia sobbed.

"Can you trust your friends?" Kronos asked.

"Percy," a soothing voice said. "Wake up. Percy."

Then my eyes shot opened and daylight spilled into them.

I almost toppled backwards off of the hippocampus, but I managed to keep my balance. It was sunny and hot. It was also humid. I looked to my right and saw the skyline of a coastal city. The sun was setting behind the skyline at the moment, causing the dark shadows to pop out from the dark side of the buildings.

I could see a beachside highway lined with palm trees, store fronts glowing with red and blue neon, a harbor filled with sailboats and cruise ships.

"Miami," I said.

"It's kind of pretty," a voice said from in front of me. "Though sitting at Fireworks Beach is beautiful as well."

I turned to look at a weary Thalia. She looked as though her sleep was not peaceful and nightmares had haunted her. Though whether about Kronos and the Titans or her love triangle predicament I couldn't tell.

Somehow she'd managed to turn around so that her chest and head faced me. She wore a tired smile and sighed. "It's over, Percy. We've made it back to the mortal world. We'll be back in New York in no time."

I nodded. "But I don't think we have the time. The camp's borders are sure to be dying at this very moment. If we don't reach there soon..."

"Oh, shut up, Percy," she groaned. "I'm trying to be optimistic."

"Well, I'm a pessimist."

"Percy!" someone suddenly called. I rotated my head to look at whoever was calling me. It turned out to be Annabeth. "The hippocampi are acting funny. What do we do?"

Sure enough, our fishy friends had slowed down and were whinnying and swimming in circles, sniffing the water. They didn't look happy. One of them sneezed. I could tell what they were thinking.

"This is as far as they'll take us," I said. "Too many humans. Too much pollution. We'll have to swim to shore on our own."

None of us were psyched about that, but we thanked Rainbow and his friends for the ride. Tyson cried a little. He unfastened the makeshift saddle pack he'd made, which contained his tool kit and a couple of other things he'd salvaged from the _Birmingham _wreck. He hugged Rainbow around the neck, gave him a soggy mango he'd picked up on the island, and said good-bye.

Once the hippocampi's white manes disappeared into the sea, we swam for shore. The waves pushed us forward, and in no time we were back in the mortal world. We wandered along the cruise line docks, pushing through crowds of people arriving for vacations. Porters bustled around with carts of luggage. Taxi drivers yelled at each other in Spanish and tried to cut in line for customers.

If anybody noticed us—five kids dripping wet and looking like they'd just had a fight with a monster—they didn't let on.

Now that we were back among mortals, Tyson's single eye had blurred from the Mist. Grover had put on his cap and sneakers. Even the Fleece had transformed from a sheepskin to a red-and-gold high school letter jacket with a large glittery Omega on the pocket.

Annabeth ran to the nearest newspaper box and checked the date on the _Miami Herald. _She cursed. "June eighteenth! We've been away from camp ten days!"

"That's impossible!" Clarisse said.

But I knew it wasn't. Time traveled differently in monstrous places.

"Camp's tree is almost dead," Grover wailed. "We have to get the Fleece back _tonight_."

Clarisse slumped down on the pavement. "How are we supposed to do that?" Her voice trembled. "We're hundreds of miles away. No money. No ride. This is just like the Oracle said. It's _your _fault, Jackson! If you hadn't interfered—"

"Are you kidding me?" Luke snorted. "Percy's the one that saved us all. If he hadn't come, we'd probably be dead by now."

Thalia stayed silent, but she looked at Clarisse curiously, as if she were trying to figure something out.

But Luke's reaction wasn't the worst. It was Annabeth's that was the worst.

"Percy's fault?" Annabeth exploded. "Clarisse, how can you say that? You are the biggest—"

"Stop it!" I said.

Clarisse put her head in hands. Annabeth stomped her foot in frustration.

The thing was: I'd almost forgotten this quest was supposed to be Clarisse's. For a scary moment, I saw things from her point of view. How would I feel if a bunch of other heroes had butted in and made me look bad?

I thought about what I'd overheard in the boiler room of the CSS _Birmingham_—Ares yelling at Clarisse, warning her that she'd better not fail. Ares couldn't care less about the camp, but if Clarisse made him look bad...

"Clarisse," I said, "what did the Oracle tell you exactly?"

She looked up. I thought she was going to tell me off, but instead she took a deep breath and recited her prophecy:

_"You shall sail the iron ship with warriors of bone,_

_You shall find what you seek and make it your own,_

_But despair for your life entombed within stone,_

_And fail without a friend, to fly home alone."_

"Ouch," Grover muttered.

"_A_ friend?" Thalia inquired.

"Yes," I said. "Yes...wait a minute. I've got it."

I searched my pockets for money, and found nothing but a golden drachma. "Does anybody have any cash?"

Everyone shook their heads morosely...except for Tyson.

"Cash?" Tyson asked hesitantly. "Like...green paper?"

"Yeah, but we lost those bags days a-g-g—"

I stuttered to a halt as Tyson rummaged in his saddle pack and pulled out the Ziploc bag full of cash that Hermes had included in our supplies.

"Tyson!" I said. "How did you—"

"Thought it was a feed bag for Rainbow," he said. "Found it floating in sea, but only paper inside. Sorry."

"Sorry?" I said baffled. "Why are you sorry, buddy? You helped us!"

Slowly, Tyson seemed to realize the fact that having cash was good. "I helped?" he asked. Though no one answered, he smiled and muttered giddily to himself: "I helped! I am useful!"

He handed me the cash. Fives and tens, at least three hundred dollars.

I ran to the curb and grabbed a taxi that was just letting out a family of cruise passengers. "Clarisse," I yelled. "Come on. You're going to the airport. Luke, give her the Fleece."

"Wait, what?" he said stunned. Instead, I had to take the Fleece from his shoulders myself, stuff the cash in one of the pockets and put it in Clarisse's arms. "Are you crazy?" he managed to add.

Clarisse said, "You'd let me—"

"It's your quest," I said. "We only have enough money for one flight. Besides, I can't travel by air. Zeus would blast me into a million pieces. That's what the prophecy meant: you'd fail without a friend, meaning you'd need my help, but you'd have to fly home alone. You have to get the Fleece back safely."

"Yeah, because _we _totally matter," Thalia said sarcastically, regarding Tyson, Annabeth, Luke and her. But everyone else ignored her.

I could see Clarisse's mind working—suspicious at first, wondering what trick I was playing, then finally deciding I meant what I said.

She jumped in the cab. "You can count on me. I won't fail."

"Not failing would be good."

The cab peeled out in a cloud of exhaust. The Fleece was on its way.

"Percy," Annabeth said, "that was so—"

"Generous?" Grover offered.

_"Insane," _Annabeth corrected. "You're betting the lives of everybody at camp that Clarisse will get the Fleece safely back by tonight?"

"_You shall find what you seek and make it your own,_" I said. "She _will_ succeed Annabeth. Unless the Fates suddenly decide otherwise. Plus, it's her quest. She deserves a chance."

"Percy is nice," Tyson said.

"Percy is _too _nice," Annabeth grumbled, but I couldn't help thinking that maybe, just maybe, she was a little impressed. I'd surprised her, anyway. And that wasn't easy to do.

"Everybody deserves a chance," Luke said. "Everyone is good in one way or another."

"Yeah." Thalia elbowed Annabeth and gestured toward Tyson stiffly. "_Everybody deserves a chance_," she repeated.

Annabeth sighed. "Clarisse better get it back. And besides, she isn't like him. He's much better."

I shook my head and chuckled. "Come on," I told my friends. "Let's find another way home."

That's when I turned and found a sword's point at my throat.

"Hey, cuz," said Ethan. "Welcome back to the States."

His bear-man thugs appeared on either of side of us. One grabbed Annabeth and Grover by their T-shirt collars. The other grabbed Luke and Thalia. Neither of them made an attempt at Tyson, who just roared at Ethan.

"Percy," Ethan said calmly, "tell your giant to back down or I'll have Oreius and Agrius bash your friends' heads together."

Oreius grinned and raised Annabeth and Grover off the ground, kicking and screaming. Agrius just growled like a tiger at Luke and Thalia.

"What do you want, Ethan?" I growled.

He smiled, his eyepatch wrinkling along with his eyes. He gestured toward the end of the dock, and I noticed what should've been obvious.

The biggest boat in port was the _Princess Andromeda._

"Why, Percy," Ethan said, "I want to extend my hospitality, of course."

The bear twins herded us aboard the _Princess Andromeda. _They threw us down on the aft deck in front of a swimming pool with sparkling fountains that sprayed into the air.

A dozen of Ethan's assorted goons—snake people, Laistrygonians, demigods in battle armor—had gathered to watch us get some "hospitality."

"And so, the Fleece," Ethan mused. "Where is it?" He looked us over, prodding my shirt with the tip of his sword, poking Grover's jeans.

"Hey!" Grover yelled. "That's real goat fur under there!"

"Sorry, old friend." Ethan smiled. "Just give me the Fleece and I'll leave you to return to your, ah, little nature quest."

"Blaa-ha-ha!" Grover protested. "Old friend, my butt!"

"Maybe you didn't hear me." Ethan's voice was dangerously calm. "Where—is—the—Fleece?"

I glanced at my friends. Each one of them had an angry look plastered onto their faces, except for Luke. His face was completely robotic and neutral. I turned back to Ethan. "We don't have it."

"You're lying," he accused. "You have the Fleece, otherwise you'd still be in the Sea of Monsters."

"No, we could have escaped without the Fleece," I suggested. "But you're right. We did get the Fleece. The only problem is that right now, the Fleece is probably 30,000 feet in the air."

At first, Ethan looked confused, but slowly he seemed to realize the horrible possibility and his face turned red. "Clarisse?"

I nodded.

"You trusted...you gave..."

"Yeah."

"Agrius!"

The bear giant flinched. "Y-yes?"

"Get below and prepare my steed. Bring it to the deck. I need to fly to the Miami Airport, fast. She's not in the air, yet."

"But, boss—"

"Do it!" Ethan screamed. "Or I'll feed you to the drakon!"

The bear-man gulped and lumbered down the stairs. Ethan paced in front of the swimming pool, cursing in Ancient Greek, gripping his sword so tight his knuckles turned white.

The rest of Ethan's crew looked uneasy. Maybe they'd never seen their boss so unhinged before.

I started thinking...If I could use Ethan's anger, get him to talk so everybody could hear how crazy his plans were...

I looked at the swimming pool, at the fountains spraying mist into the air, making a rainbow in the sunset. And suddenly I had an idea.

"So, the plan," I said. "You send us in to the Sea of Monsters and we get the Golden Fleece. You and Kronos both know we couldn't fail. Therefore, you would wait until we washed up here, grab us, take the Fleece and murder us. You would allow the camp's borders to die."

Ethan scowled. "Of course, you idiot! And you've messed everything up!"

"Traitor!" I dug my last gold drachma out of my pocket and threw it at Ethan. As I expected, he dodged it easily.

The coin sailed into the spray of rainbow-colored water.

I hoped my prayer would be accepted in silence. I thought with all my heart: _O goddess, accept my offering._

"You used to be trusted by everyone!" I yelled. "Probably even by DIONYSUS at CAMP HALF-BLOOD!"

Behind Ethan, the fountain began to shimmer, but I needed everyone's attention on me, so I uncapped Riptide.

Ethan just sneered. "This no time for heroics, Percy. One move and twenty arrows will pierce your skull."

I looked up and saw twenty Laistrygonian archers. "Too scared to fight me yourself?" I prodded.

He smirked. "You don't know my true skill. You're not as good as you really think, Percy."

I looked past him at the fountain. The campers' shocked faces stared through at the Iris-message. No one in the rainbow moved or made a sound. Deciding that now was my chance to expose Ethan, I smirked right back at him. "Now, let's clear this up. _You_ poisoned the camp's pine tree, right?"

"I did, of course," he snarled. "I already told you that. I used elder python venom, straight from the depths of Tartarus."

"Chiron had nothing to do with it?"

"Ha! You know he would never do that. The old fool wouldn't have the guts."

"You call it guts? Betraying your friends? Endangering the whole camp?"

Ethan raised his sword. "You don't understand the half of it. I was going to let you take the Fleece...once I was done with it."

That made me hesitate. Why would he let me take the Fleece? He must've been lying. But I couldn't afford to lose his attention.

"You were going to heal Kronos," I said.

"Yes! The Fleece's magic would've sped his mending process by tenfold. But you haven't stopped us, Percy. You've only slowed us down a little."

"And so you poisoned the tree, betrayed Chiron, and set us up—all to help Kronos destroy the gods."

Ethan gritted his teeth. "You know that! Why do you keep asking me?"

"Because I want everybody in the audience to hear you."

"_What _audience?"

Then his eyes narrowed. He looked behind him and his goons did the same. They gasped and stumbled back.

Above the pool, shimmering in the rainbow mist, was an Iris-message vision of Dionysus, Tantalus, and the whole camp in the dining pavilion. They sat in stunned silence, watching us.

"Well," said Dionysus dryly, "some unplanned dinner entertainment."

"Mr. D, you heard him," I said. "You all heard Ethan. The poisoning of the tree wasn't Chiron's fault."

Mr. D sighed. "I suppose not."

"The Iris-message could be a trick," Tantalus suggested, but his attention was mostly on his cheeseburger, which he was trying to corner with both hands.

"I fear not," Mr. D said, looking with distaste at Tantalus. "It appears I shall have to reinstate Chiron as activities director. I suppose I do miss the old horse's pinochle games."

Tantalus grabbed the cheeseburger. It didn't bolt away from him. He lifted it from the plate and stared at it in amazement, as if it were the largest diamond in the world. "I got it!" he cackled.

"We are no longer in need of your services, Tantalus," Mr. D announced.

Tantalus looked stunned. "What? But—"

"You may return to the Underworld. You are dismissed."

"No! But—Nooooooooooo!"

As he dissolved into mist, his fingers clutched at the cheeseburger, trying to bring it to his mouth. But it was too late. He disappeared and the cheeseburger fell back onto its plate. The campers exploded into cheering.

Ethan bellowed with rage. He slashed his sword through the fountain and the Iris-message dissolved, but the deed was done.

"I was right, Percy. I told Kronos this. You're an unreliable weapon. You need to be replaced."

I wasn't sure what he meant, but I didn't have time to think about it. One of his men blew a brass whistle, and the deck doors flew open. A dozen more warriors poured out, making a circle around us, the brass tips of their spears bristling.

Ethan smiled at me. "You'll never leave this boat alive."

* * *

**Hey everyone,**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter. Thanks for the hundred who've put this on their favorites, followed and reviewed.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _any_ excerpts taken from Rick Riordan's book _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters._**

**I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	18. Perseus Jackson Dies

**Hello everyone,**

**Thank you all for reading my story. Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts from Rick Riordan's _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters_.**

**I'm not sure what happens when someone loses a lot of blood so don't criticize me.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**

* * *

**Περσεύς 17**

**Perseus Jackson Dies**

"One on one," I challenged Ethan. "What are you afraid of?"

He curled his lip. The soldiers who were about to kill us hesitated, waiting for his order.

Before he could say anything, Agrius, the bear-man, burst onto the deck leading a flying horse. It was the first pure-black pegasus I'd ever seen, with wings like a giant raven.

The pegasus mare bucked and whinnied. I could understand his thoughts. He was calling Agrius and Luke some names so bad Chiron would've washed his muzzle out with saddle soap.

"Sir!" Agrius called, dodging a pegasus hoof. "Your steed is ready!"

Ethan kept his eyes of me. "Don't think so highly of yourself. Being cocky and arrogant doesn't help you. Like I said, you're not as good as you think you are."

"And you're not as good as _you_ think you are," I retorted. "Scared your warriors will see you get whipped?"

Ethan glanced at his men, and he saw I'd trapped him. If he backed down now, he would look weak. If he fought me, he'd lose valuable time chasing after Clarisse. At least, that's what I thought. What I didn't recall was the fact that I was well-known in the monster world and lots of monsters knew I was a dangerous threat to them.

He smiled and put his hand up straight up in the air. Then he waved it down and suddenly a wave of arrows wailed down toward me. Not expecting it, I sliced the arrows out of the air almost too late.

"Coward!" I yelled as more arrows showered at me.

As I continued slicing the arrows into halves or dodging them, my friends all screamed in protest. I looked around desperately for Tyson but I didn't see him anywhere. Where was he when I needed him the most?

"Don't hurt my brother!" a voice bellowed. Then, a giant figure came crashing down into the swimming pool. It was a dead Laistrygonian archer. I looked up where a giant Cyclops was thrashing and pummeling the Laistrygonian archers as they scrambled to protect themselves.

"Go!" I heard Luke yell. I had forgotten that Agrius was sent to get the Pegasus. He and Thalia charged into the group of monsters and began fighting.

Ethan didn't move but turned his head toward my friends. That act confused me. Why wouldn't he be worried that two of the best fighters at camp were attacking his warriors? He simply smiled and watched as many of his crew went down before the first counter-attack on Luke and Thalia.

"Archers!" Ethan suddenly called.

There were still a few left who hadn't been harmed by Tyson's rage, but he would soon be upon them, ready to wreak havoc to those who had hurt his friends.

The few aimed at Luke and Thalia and let fly. All but one of the arrows missed their targets. They either missed or hit their own crewmates. However, the one arrow that _did_ hit its target tore right through Luke's sword arm. My friend dropped his sword in agony and was taken down easily. The monsters held him down and a _dracaena_ held the point of a spear at his throat.

Thalia looked at me, deciding what she wanted to do: retreat or attack.

Another bellow came up: "Bad monsters gone! Nobody hurts my friends!"

In that moment of distraction, Thalia charged at Ethan and attempted to stab him quickly. He easily side-stepped the attack and kicked her with a push kick. Thalia stumbled to the side for a little bit but managed to keep her balance and continued attacking.

She spun and swiped away at Ethan, but he calmly parried all of her attacks. I didn't know what Ethan was doing. He should've wanted to dispose of the threat quickly so that he could catch up to Clarisse, but he seemed at ease as if it were a part of his plan. That made me worry a little bit. There's got to be something behind all of his trickery and lies.

Thalia brought her spear back, held her shield up to protect herself, and thrusted it at Ethan. I watched as Ethan brought his sword up to block the attack. Backbiter glinted in the sunlight. Its blade glinted with an evil gray-and-gold light where the human steel had been melded with celestial bronze. I could almost feel the blade fighting against itself, like two opposing magnets bound together. I didn't know how the blade had been made, but I sensed a tragedy. Someone had died in the process.

"Shield!" Ethan yelled. Someone in the crowd of Ethan's cronies threw a shield into the air. Ethan did a backflip and slipped the shield on in midair. He landed on the deck with a large _thump_! Then he charged at Thalia and with three quick strokes, her shield shrunk back into a bracelet, her spear was sitting in the swimming pool, and Thalia was at sword's point.

"My, Thalia, you're as fussy as Percy," Ethan chided. "Maybe you need to get eliminated just like Percy." He pondered over this for a second. "Yes. You should get killed now. The world will be a better place without a self-centered daughter of Zeus."

"Hey, you shut up!" yelled Luke. "Don't talk about Thalia that way!"

Ethan tripped Thalia and called for some of his crew to hold her down. He turned to me with a smirk. "Your plan failed, Percy."

"What plan? I never had a plan," I said. "Besides, shouldn't you be going after the Fleece?"

"So naive, Percy," he laughed. "A smart aleck like you should've figured it out by now, right?" He laughed again.

I looked over at Annabeth. She had her eyebrows scrunched up in a confused fashion. When we caught each other's eyes she shook her head. She didn't know what he was talking about. I gripped my sword tighter and glared at him.

"Oh, of course," Ethan replied. "You would sacrifice yourself for your friends, correct? No matter what the cost?" I narrowed my eyes even further. "Come and save the daughter of Zeus, why don't you. She's your friend, is she not?"

I took a step forward. Nobody moved. I took another. Still nobody moved. I was a good five paces away from Ethan and six paces from Thalia. I realized I was getting closer to the center of the ship. If I were to bail the ship, I would have to travel further. The only benefit of the middle was the giant swimming pool.

"Come on, Percy," Ethan said. "Come closer."

I stopped. A painful gut feeling told me something tragic was about to happen. Something bad would happen soon. Whether it was on me or Thalia...or whoever the hell was going to have something bad happen to them, I had no idea, but the feeling of dread seemed to fill my lungs up with acid.

"So you won't save your _friend_, huh?" Ethan gave me a look of almost pure evil. "Well, in that case..."

"Don't touch her!" Luke yelled. I looked over quickly at Tyson who was busy watching in horrid fascination. He would be too late. Annabeth looked completely desolate, like she was in a desert with no chance to escape. Grover had tears streaking down his face. That's when I came to a realization.

"I'm sorry, Luke," Ethan said sorrowfully. "The choice is made."

"NO!" I screamed. The swimming pool exploded everywhere and I swore the entire boat shook. Water splattered everywhere, but I wasn't affected by it. I knew exactly where to go. As the sprinkling water showered down on us, I lunged at Ethan. Somehow, like how I had gut instincts, he knew I was there and managed to block my attack.

I was surprised that he could tell and as the final drops of water rained down, he broke the block and grabbed me. He forcefully threw me to the ground and tried stabbing me. I was quick, though, and swiped his legs out from under him. He rolled just as I slashed down.

The water slowly rolled back into the swimming pool.

I analyzed his posture and his fighting skills. He had definitely gotten better since last year. I didn't know what training he'd been up to, but I figured it was someone who really pushed him hard. He also had a shield. The shield was a problem. Fighting two-handed with just a sword gives you more power, but fighting one-handed with a shield gives you better defense and versatility.

"Thalia, run!" Luke yelled. In the explosion of the pool, Ethan's guards had been knocked away from Thalia. She had a chance to fight her way to saving Luke. The unfortunate thing was that she had been disoriented too and lost her weapons. Before she could find her weapons, a whole bunch of Ethan's crew surrounded her and pinned her to the ground.

Luke turned to Ethan with a cold stare. "You wouldn't hurt her," he said icily. "You wouldn't dare."

The son of Nemesis laughed. "You don't know what it takes to live or die, Luke. Sacrifice is necessary. You will need to learn that in order to fulfill your fate." At that moment, he turned back to me, not giving me a moment to attack him by surprise. "Now, Percy. Do you wish so much to die?"

"What are you talking about, Ethan?" I shook my head puzzled. "Why with all of the confusing questions now? You've turned into someone different. You're not Ethan Nakamura anymore, not the one who people knew. You're some retard following the sayings of a Titan Lord that wants to bring down Olympus and Western Civilization with it."

His face burned red. "_Not_ Ethan Nakamura? I've always been this way, Percy. I only copy the sayings of my lord because what he says is true. He will save Western Civilization and turn it into something better than what the gods have shaped humanity into. But I don't each care about that. What I care about is respect, and as long as I get that from Kronos, I will back him up."

"That weak of a relationship, huh?" I snorted. "So if the gods _had_ respected Nemesis you'd be on our side? You're a bandwagoner, Ethan. You just hop onto the side which suits you best. Something negative about one side, you join the other. Something positive about your side, you feel as if it means the consequences of the actions are negated by the power and social standing of the ruler who wants to initiate the plan."

"You're wasting time, Percy," he said. "Trying to be the hero doesn't work all the time. Besides, you're no hero. You've let your entire family die: your mom, Viola and yourself."

I glared at Ethan ferociously. "Take that back," I growled.

"And if I don't..?"

"I said, take that back!" I snarled.

"And I said, 'if I don't..?'"

"Then you asked for it." I leaped at him with a yell, and we clashed swords. My celestial bronze clashed with his molded celestial bronze and steel. He and I held that position for a little bit before he backflipped behind a deck chair.

"Come on, Percy," he goaded. "Is that all you've got?"

I sneered and somersaulted over to him. I hacked a downward slash at his head, though as I expected, he blocked it with ease.

The difference between my fighting style now and my fighting style back last year is that now, I play more balanced between defense and offense, not trying to tire myself out by going on a full-out attack. Also, I had gotten used to being agile and quick for evasion, rather than power for a domination for attacking. There was usually still a mismatch between fighting partners and I hardly ever put my best effort in. As much as I hated the god, Ares would have been a great battle partner for training.

Ethan dropped to a crouch and jabbed at my legs. I jumped and kicked both of my feet off his head like a springboard. I landed on the deck with a small grunt and heard the collapse of Ethan's body. I quickly got up to try and kill him, just to end it all. While he was still on the ground clutching his head, I grabbed him and threw him into the swimming pool. Then I dove in after him.

He was near the bottom of the pool, Backbiter loosely gripped in his right hand. I capped Riptide and propelled myself toward him.

Just to make him suffer more, I brought Ethan to the surface of the water and began strangling him. It was then that he finally regained the strength to push me back. It was unfortunate for him that I was in friendly territory: in a small body of water. I quickly regained my choke hold on him. He struggled in the water, but I kept the flow of the chlorinated water against him, holding him as still as possible.

I tightened my grip a bit and he went slack.

I let go thinking he'd expired, but I learned quickly that it was a trick. A four-foot long blade emerged out of the water and came down at me. I couldn't believe I'd left Backbiter in his hands this entire time. I used the water around me to struggle back against the blade. I concentrated hard and focused on the water around me. I willed it to my command and pushed back against the blade.

There was a brief struggle when I forced the water to spray out of the pool again. We were propelled out of the water like dolphins and crashed to the deck with a rough grunt. This time, it hurt me as much as it did Ethan.

"Let go of me!" yelled Thalia.

"Luke, help!" called Annabeth and Grover.

Tyson was struggling against Ethan's crew, trying to make his way toward me. "Don't hurt my brother!" he screamed.

"Let go of Thalia and Annabeth!" Luke growled. "Let them go! I'll kill you all!"

I grunted again and coughed as the pain in my chest from the landing finally registered. The sense of dread filled me again. It was as if a boulder had been dropped on my chest and left there to hold me still. The pain wasn't something I hadn't felt before. It was just new as the pain I'd felt in the past year was nothing compared to this.

"Percy Jackson," a hoarse voice said from above me. I looked up to see Ethan Nakamura holding a sharp knife. I pulled his legs out from under him...at least, I tried to. He managed to hold his ground and pick me up. He smiled at me cruelly. "Goodbye, Percy Jackson."

Then a knife entered my gut and searing pain entered my gut. I gasped, unbelieving as to what had happened. How could I be so unprepared as to letting Ethan get up before me?

"Percy!" Thalia exclaimed, stopping her fight with Ethan's crew.

I watched as my ears seemed to lose its sense for a second.

The looks of terror and disbelief stricken on my friends' faces. The look of surprise also on their faces. The all stopped doing what they were trying to do and stared at me in horror. I grimaced as pain shot even further up my abdomen, spreading to my lungs and heart. All of my senses seemed to be on fire.

Then my hearing returned.

"One thing I want you to watch before you die, Percy." He looked at the bear-man Oreius, who was still holding Annabeth and Grover by the necks. "You can eat your dinner now, Oreius. Bon appetit."

"He-he! He-he!" The bear-man lifted my friends and bared his teeth.

The help was too late.

_Whish!_

A red-feathered arrow sprouted from Oreius' mouth. With a surprised look on his hairy face, he crumpled to the deck.

"Brother!" Agrius wailed. He let the pegasus' reins go slack just long enough for the black steed to kick him in the head and fly away free over Miami Bay.

For a split second, Ethan's guards were too stunned to do anything except watch the bear twins' bodies dissolve into smoke.

Then there was a wild chorus of war cries and hooves thundering against metal. A dozen centaurs charged out of the main stairwell.

"Ponies!" Tyson cried with delight.

"No!" Ethan growled. He pulled his knife out of me stomach and turned to face the centaurs. I collapsed to the deck in agony. I knew I had to get out quickly. There was nothing that could help me except for magic or sea water. Even if Chiron and his centaur-buddies could help us escape the ship, I figured I would die by blood loss before he could do anything.

I clutched my wound tightly and tried getting up. I was unsuccessful.

I turned and looked up to the centaurs. Chiron was among the crowd, but his relatives looked nothing like him. There were centaurs with black Arabian stallion bodies, others with gold palomino coats, others with orange-and-white spots like paint horses.

Some wore brightly colored T-shirts with Day-Glo letters that said PARTY PONIES: SOUTH FLORIDA CHAPTER. Some were armed with bows, some with baseball bats, some with paintball guns. One had his face painted like a Comanche warrior and was waving a large orange Styrofoam hand making a big Number I. Another was bare-chested and painted entirely green. A third had googly-eye glasses with the eyeballs bouncing around on Slinky coils, and one of those baseball caps with soda-can-and-straw attachments on either side.

As Ethan was getting his sword to rally his troops, a centaur shot a custom-made arrow with a leather boxing glove on the end. It smacked Ethan in the face and sent him crashing into the swimming pool.

His warriors scattered. I couldn't blame them. Facing the hooves of a rearing stallion is scary enough, but when it's a centaur, armed with a bow and whooping it up in a soda-drinking hat, even the bravest warrior would retreat. Well...maybe not the _bravest_ warrior, but an average warrior would.

"Come get some!" yelled one of the party ponies.

They let loose with their paintball guns. A wave of blue and yellow exploded against Luke's warriors, blinding them and splattering them from head to toe. They tried to run, only to slip and fall.

Chiron galloped toward Annabeth and Grover, neatly plucked them off the deck, and deposited them on his back.

"Percy!" someone yelled amongst the chaos. A black-haired figure helped me up. My vision was getting a little wonky. "We have to get you to a medic, now!"

"Leave me," I told her. "Help to the railing. I need to get off this thing."

"Wait, what?!"

"I need to get into the...the ocean." My vision became blurry and my concentration broke. "Help me. Nothing can save me but the ocean or magic at this moment."

"But Percy—"

"But nothing!" I yelled in pain. "Either you help me to the railing or I die! Which do you want?!"

She hesitated before helping me toward the railing of the ship. Shouting and hollering came from the chaos behind us. I heard the shouts of Luke, but the words weren't clear. Everything around me seemed hazy. I could hear the calling of the centaurs, the shouting from Ethan to his troops and the sounds of...weeping.

"Here we are." Thalia's voice cracked. Though my vision was blurry and hazy, I turned to Thalia and looked at her dead on.

"Help me get over the railing," I said weakly. My voice seemed to be getting fainter and weaker, as if I'd lost a lot of blood. I couldn't feel much of myself anymore, everything going numb. There was one spot that I could feel, though. It was where my wound was. A soft hand pressed against it.

"Please come back, Percy," I heard Thalia say. "We all need you. I—"

"Thalia!" a distant voice shouted.

"Please come back," she said.

My breathing seemed to occur rapidly in short, quick breaths. I could barely feel myself now. But the words I said echoed in my mind until I blacked out in the bottom of the cruise line docks. "I promise that I'll do my best to come back. I will always come back."

Then I was pushed off the _Princess Andromeda_ and fell into the ocean unconscious.

* * *

**Hey everyone,**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter. Thanks for the hundred who've put this on their favorites, followed and reviewed.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _any_ excerpts taken from Rick Riordan's book _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters._**

**I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.**

**I don't know what happens when someone loses a lot of blood except for hypovolemic shock, but I added in the blurry eyes and stuff to make it more dramatic. So sorry if you actually know what really happens in blood loss and I got it wrong, but let's just say it _does_ work in this fictional story.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	19. The Palace of Poseidon

**Hello everyone,**

**Thank you all for reading my story. Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts from Rick Riordan's _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters_.**

**Pretty long chapter...and it took a little while to write. Don't even ask about revising. I didn't do it.**

**Anyway, a poll is up about this story. Go to my profile page. I already have what I prefer and so far the results are going the complete opposite of what I want, but you guys vote for what you want to happen. You get two votes and vote for one that starts with "Luke..." and one that starts with "The Heroes of Olympus." I deleted one of the options as I realized I wouldn't want to do it so it would end up crappy. Anyway, vote and thanks for reading.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**

* * *

**Περσεύς 18**

**The Palace of Poseidon**

Ethan was right when he said he had gotten better. I hadn't fought anyone decent since Ares, the god of war. There were many differences between Ares and Ethan. First off, Ares was cocky and had a huge ego. Ethan wasn't cocky and didn't have a huge ego. There were so many differences between them it would take forever to list, but the most important one was that Ethan was on the side of the Titans and Ares would fight for the gods. I hate to say it, but at the moment I like Ares better than Ethan.

Over an extended period of time that was hard to measure, I continuously woke up and then fell unconscious. What I saw made me think that I was in some sort of underwater encampment.

There were nereids everywhere tending to me and a couple other patients. My head was spinning too much for me to see who the other patients were clearly. The medical room I was in looked elegant, as if it were built for royal guests.

Many times I heard people talking. Sometimes it would be the nereids to do something that would help myself. Sometimes it would be people outside my room.

One time, there was a man and a woman talking. They sounded eerily familiar, though I didn't sense too much danger from them. They sounded like they were arguing. I think it was the woman who had stomped out. I had no idea what made her stomp out, but just as my eyes started to close the man entered and I felt a large, cool hand lay on my forehead.

Then I passed out.

Multiple times things like this happened. I would wake up and someone near me would be talking. I was too weak to be able to comprehend exactly what people were saying, but I could hear words clearly.

Time passed quickly, most of my time spent unconscious. I still didn't know how long I'd been in this underwater infirmary, but I figured it had been over a week.

Then came the day when I spent a long time awake. I felt much stronger that day, and things seemed to reach me much clearer. I had slowly progressed and gotten better in terms of health, and the nereid nurses and doctors told me that my wound and internal organs had fully healed. I hoped so because water was my strength and it should have given me power to heal. A nurse told me that I had to just stay underwater and slowly build up my strength before I could "leave."

So, politely, I thanked the nurse and slowly sat up. That's when I noticed something odd about being underwater. My voice sounded wrong. I could hear voices, but it was more like I was hearing vibrations inside my skull, not the regular sounds.

My gut area felt completely fine and everything. I asked the nurse whether everything was actually completely healed and she nodded.

"Of course being the son of Poseidon helps with that," she said. "You have made a miraculous recovery. When some of Delphin's men found you bleeding human blood and sinking in the ocean you were almost dead. It is amazing that you could survive that wound. Usually most need a certain drive to stay alive."

The nereid examined me for a second. "We should get you to your father's palace now, to let him know you are all right. Hopefully Lady Amphitrite isn't there at the moment."

I nodded. "Are we far away from the palace?"

She laughed. "Haven't you noticed, Lord Percy? We're _in _Atlantis."

* * *

The palace was the most amazing place I'd ever seen...or maybe it was just because I favored my father over the King of the Gods and Lord of the Underworld.

The palace was as big as the city on Mount Olympus, with wide courtyards, gardens, and columned pavilions. The gardens were sculpted with coral colonies and glowing sea plants. Twenty or thirty buildings were made of abalone, white but gleaming with rainbow colors. Fish and octopi darted in and out of the windows. The paths were lined with glowing pearls like Christmas lights.

The main courtyard was filled with mermen—with fish tails from the waist down and human bodies from the waist up, except their skin was blue, which I'd never known before. One passed us, swimming in a hurry. His eyes were bright green, like that stuff they put in glo-sticks, and his teeth were shark teeth. They don't show you stuff like that in The Little Mermaid. Outside the main courtyard stood large fortifications-towers, walls, and anti-siege weapons. Torches were lit all around the city, burning with a strange, glowing light: Greek fire.

At the edge of the palace complex, a temple with a red coral roof exploded, sending fire and debris streaming in slow motion across the farthest gardens. Out of the darkness above, an enormous form appeared-a squid larger than any skyscraper. It was surrounded by a glittering cloud of dust-at least I thought it was dust, until I realized it was a swarm of mermen trying to attack the monster. The squid descended on the palace and swatted its tentacles, smashing a whole column of warriors. Then a small figure swam up toward the creature, more figures following it. It seemed to yell orders, sound waves vibrating against my skull. Then the creatures attacked the monster as one. The monster faltered and weakened, causing more warriors to push the monster forward and away from the city.

"Is Oceanus attacking the city right now?" I panicked.

"No." The nereid guiding me shook her head. "Once in a while sea monsters do attack Atlantis, but Delphin is very organized when it comes to battle and usually Lord Poseidon does not have to deal with it."

"So the reinforcements were dolphins?"

"Yes."

I nodded, trying not to feel weirded out. I mean, I knew the legends of Delphin and the dolphins, but I didn't really see dolphins as warriors. Those pirates that Dionysus had turned into dolphins were probably wimps.

I looked on at the palace. I turned to look at the nereid. "Do we just go in?"

"Poseidon isn't picky," she said. "You should know that, shouldn't you?"

I frowned. I guess I should have but... "I don't see my dad that often because I...you know, live on the surface. This is all very strange, but I guess living on the streets makes things less surprising when I first see them. Trust me, the mortal world has some very, very dark elements to it."

"Does it?" The nereid led me through a labyrinth of hallways and passages before leading me to the main throne room. The entrance was closed by large doors shaped in an oval-like semicircle. The nereid turned to me. "Hold on a second while I check if Lord Poseidon is here or in somewhere else."

I nodded and waited as the nereid entered the room.

I heard voices come from inside. All in all, it was very muffled, the door blocking a lot of the sound from getting through. This was the part that differed Atlantis to Olympus. Olympus was very open everywhere, but Atlantis had some private rooms. Through the labyrinth of hallways and passages I had seen many closed doors.

After what felt like eternity the nereid came out and smiled at me. "You are welcome to enter."

She led me into the room.

It was pretty plain for a throne room, but I guess my father didn't really use this room much. It kind of seemed more decorative than useful. There were stone and marble statues lining the right and left walls of popular figures. The largest two were Poseidon and Amphitrite, followed by Triton and Delphin. I didn't recognize any of the other figures.

In the center of the room were three thrones. All three were occupied. The largest one sat my father, looking like his usual self. The throne itself looked exactly like the one he had on Olympus. Poseidon wore Bermuda shorts and a tropical shirt, and had his usual twinkling green eyes with wrinkles at the corners. His lips were twitched in a small smile as he watched me enter, but they also held a little bit of an apology in them.

Next to my father, on the right, was a slightly smaller throne with a bunch of other bottom-of-the-sea stones decorated all around it. There were so many that I could even name them all. There were a few that we easily recognizable as there were some on the surface, but since I didn't really pay attention in science class I didn't know any of these rocks.

Then on my father's left was the smallest throne, a throne that was very plain. It seemed like it was made of quartz or something of the sort. But the only decoration it had was that waves swirled around it. It seemed like the current or something as it flowed around the seat.

Now on those two thrones sat two people who probably didn't like me very much. Considering that they were glaring at me, I guessed that my educated guess was correct.

"We come to talk to you," said Amphitrite bitterly, "and this thing shows up." She gestured toward me. She wasn't looking at my father, but it was easy to tell she was talking to him.

"Yes, father," said Triton blandly. "Why do you even keep the half-breed alive? Even paranoid Zeus wants him dead, and Uncle Hades too!"

Poseidon turned to his wife and son...other son. "I have told you two many times, he will be gone when he has gained enough strength to perform at the level he has performed at before."

Amphitrite sneered at me. "Stay out of my way, half-blood. Despite what your father says, you are not welcome here. We have already wasted so many resources on healing your fragile, mortal body and we will not give you more than three meals a day."

Triton smiled at me, but the kindness didn't reach his eyes. "Be careful, mother is very good at carrying out her threats."

"Triton. Amphitrite," Poseidon said sternly. "Get out and wait while I talk with Percy."

"Very well," Amphitrite told him coldly. "Come, _son_."

Triton followed her out of the throne room, shutting the door behind them, sure to get as far away from me as possible. I figured it was probably the bitterness from knowing that her husband had broke a pact and cheated on her for the millionth time.

"I'm sorry, Percy," Poseidon sighed when they exited. He slumped on his throne slightly. "She's been having a rough time ever since she found out about your existence, and your arrival has done nothing better for her. By the way, how are you. You were almost dead when Delphin's men found you. They even suggested to leave you to die."

"Yeah, I'm so grateful that most deities of the sea hate me."

Poseidon smiled at my sarcasm. "You haven't changed much though you've almost died."

I nodded.

"You've made your friends very worried, though," my father reminded me. "I figure you would want to see them soon, would you not?"

I had forgotten about that. I wonder what my friends were thinking. Were they thinking that I was dead? Were they still looking out for me? Or had they given up?

"Yes," I replied. "Do they..?"

"Gods do not know _everything_ that a mortal feels unless such god has no life." He coughed and mumbled something that sound like "Zeus."

Then he looked at me with gentle eyes, like a gentle sea breeze that blows over you at the beach at sunset. It was very calming. "However, I have spoken briefly with Chiron asking about your friends. He says they want to see you again, though Luke doesn't think you're alive. A little controversy has stirred between him and Thalia. Chiron didn't tell me exactly _why_ the daughter of _Zeus_ would be defending you, but I figure it has nothing to do with faith in you."

I flushed, embarrassed. I remembered the last little bit before I had jumped off (or had been pushed off) the _Princess Andromeda_. Thalia had asked me to come back as soon as possible, and I had promised that I would try my best to. Now that I was fully healed, I could go back. Then all that I had promised Thalia would come true and maybe everything could go back to normal...as normal as it gets for a demigod.

Then there was my father's tone. When he said "_why_ the daughter of _Zeus_," he seemed to have that mysterious tone in there, like he knew a part of something, but was inquiring more. Did he know something I didn't...because I sure as hell didn't recognize it. There was also the fact that he probably didn't like Zeus because he was the one that killed my mother. At least Hades was just enough to not send my mother to the Fields of Punishment.

"You never know, dad," I shrugged passively.

My father nodded. "So, I have many things to attend to, as you might notice."

He stayed silent for a few seconds. I frowned and began to talk. "Um, dad. What are you—"

There was a knock on the door. "Enter!" called my father. He looked at me with an _I-told-you-so_ look. The doors swung open and a merman entered. He looked a little wild—on an adrenaline rush.

"Sir, Delphin and the other warriors have taken down the squid," he reported. "We have no casualties reported. Also, you have a message from Delphin. He said that he would take the human up to the surface to help him get his land legs back."

My father nodded. "Very well. Is the meeting with Amphitrite and the others cancelled, then? If Delphin isn't coming..?"

"No, my lord," he blabbered on. "The Queen would still like to meet you in the Discussion Room. All other guests will be there. It will just be about what doesn't concern Delphin."

Poseidon sighed. "All right. Bring Percy to Delphin. The meeting was planned for ten minutes from now. I should go and be there early so that my wife does not get mad." He turned to me. "I'm sorry you don't have much time to talk today; however, you will not be leaving now or very soon."

"How long have I been down here?" I inquired. "How long will I have to stay?"

"Almost two weeks," Poseidon replied. "The nereids aren't the best at figuring out human bodies so they had to fetch help through naiads and disguise themselves as humans to get into doctor's offices that are closer to the waters. It's possible for them, though it is possible for them to die. By the time they attempted surgery, they found out that you had healed, so they sealed up the cut they made, which needed longer to heal. The water has made the stitches disappear. I'm not sure how much longer you must stay, but only until how long it will take you regain your strength."

Being underwater for two weeks meant that it was July now. With my luck, I had probably missed Independence Day at camp and missed the fireworks at Firework Beach.

"Okay," I said.

My father turned to the messenger merman. "Take Percy to Delphin."

"Yes, Lord Poseidon. Come, half-blood," he told me.

I looked at my father. He nodded on his throne and gave me an encouraging look. He gave me a tired smile as I was led out the doors. As the doors closed magically behind me, I turned to the merman. "So...uh, have you lived for a long time? Have you dealt with human sons of Poseidon before?"

He shook his head. "I'm a younger merman. I've just finished school and I'm ready to serve Lord Poseidon. I'm probably twenty human years old."

"Oh."

It was quiet for a little bit as we swam out of the palace in silence. I wasn't sure what to talk about to make this less awkward, but I didn't really have much in common with underwater sea creatures.

"What did you study?" I asked finally.

"Sword-fighting," he replied. "Delphin says that when I get older, I might be the best warrior he's ever seen! Besides him, Lord Poseidon and Lord Triton, of course."

"That sounds nice," I said. "You must be pretty good, then."

He shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe. I still get thrashed easily by Delphin, though."

"Well, he is _the_ Delphin," I remarked. "I mean, you can't possibly think to beat Poseidon's general at such a young age. I mean, that's like me believing I could take on Athena and win."

"Don't you mean Ares?"

"No. Ares doesn't fight well. He only loves power and bloodshed."

"And _how_ do you know that?"

"I beat him."

"Wow."

We talked a little bit more before reaching the very edge of Atlantis. At this point, there was a drop-off that led even deeper into the ocean. I could feel sound waves bounce from everywhere. This was an ocean trench. I wasn't sure if it was Marianas Trench or what, but it seemed pretty deep. However, that was only what I could perceive.

As I was admiring the deep-ocean trench, the merman, who I learned was named Kyros, frowned. "Where is Delphin? He said he'd be here waiting for us." Kyros turned to me. "Usually I'd be doing extra training exercises with him right now, so I'm not sure where he is. Plus, with the attack this morning it was an extra surprise."

Something buzzed in the back of my head. Not like the buzz as in noise, but buzz as in the slight vibration on the surface of my skull. "Wait, did you say you'd usually be training with him?" The buzzing got stronger and louder.

"Yeah, usually at this time I'd be—"

"Shh," I whispered. "Be silent for a second." He obeyed.

We stayed silent, the noises in the background of the city humming behind us. The city of Atlantis sounded much quieter than New York, having less of a population, but still hustled and bustled with activity. There was pretty much no fuss about all of the monster that attacked earlier, and non-warrior women and young children roamed the streets leisurely.

"Are you sure you heard something?" Kyros whispered. "Maybe you were just hearing something."

I frowned. "No...I'm pretty sure..."

Then my instincts kicked in and I uncapped my sword. I swirled around and bolted toward a random spot behind me. I grabbed onto a sleek grey figure and held my sword point at the figure's head. For a second, it stayed still and I realized it was a dolphin. Then it moved again and thrashed around.

The dolphin slipped through my hands and used its tail to slap against my face. Remind you that the dolphin was the size of a regular adult bottlenose dolphin and his tail was pretty big. I was knocked off balance for a second before I used the water around me to my advantage.

I shot through the water like a torpedo and grabbed at the dolphin. He tried swimming away from me and attack by agility, but the water gave me strength. And I think Delphin knew that.

After a minute of struggling, Delphin gave up and chattered, _Excellent, Lord Perseus. I must let you know, though, it wasn't my idea to let you die. I recognized you instantly, Prince. Lord Poseidon would be most upset if you were not saved. Yet I still need to determine whether you are fit to earn my respect._

"That's...expected," I replied. Kyros was staring at me impressed. "Um, I have a lot of training to do before I can go back...right? My father said I needed to regain my strength...and though I feel much better, I think I'm still a little out of shape."

_Yes, two weeks without any action is not good for a warrior such as yourself_, Delphin told me. _Look at me, you know how I am Lord Poseidon's left-hand man in battle...a little demotion from Triton's spot, but I have been my lord's lieutenant for a long time. I've told this story to Kyros many times. Tell it, student._

Kyros nodded. He turned to me. "Long ago, when your father was trying to woo Amphitrite, Delphin was the one who went to search for her and persuade her to marry him. You know this story, right?"

_And look how far I've come_, Delphin quickly interjected.

I nodded. "Considering Zeus murdered my mother I was introduced into the Greek world quite early and researched many ancient Greek and Roman stories about the gods."

_All right_, chattered Delphin. The dolphin turned his body to face Kyros. _Do you want to join us, Kyros. After all, this is usually the time that we practiced. And I was aiming to attack you in that practice run, not Perseus._

"Um, Delphin," I spoke up. "Can you please not call me Perseus? It makes me sound too much like the original Perseus. Honestly, the heroes are cool and all, but I don't want to be like them."

_Oh, and what do you want to be like?_

"Well, something my mom was trying to shape me into, added in with some things I learned on the streets of the mortal world," I replied. "My mom wanted me to be nice to people, no matter what, but that's adjusted from what I learned on the streets because once you find out their true colors and intentions you can backstab them...not literally. Also, something I learned about my mother after she died was that she sacrificed her own personal benefits to keep me safe. You two are lucky to be down here where there aren't that many disgusting, horrid people. You know demigods have a certain scent on each of them, right? So, my mother sacrificed her well-being to keep the smell down by hiding with the smelliest mortal in the entire world. And she died by doing that. _The price of greatness is responsibility_. _To achieve success, you must learn from your mistakes._" I looked down reminiscing past memories.

_Very well_, Delphin said after a moment of silence. His words held no pitying emotion, but the way he looked at me made me feel like he felt bad for me. Both of us knew he wouldn't do anything to help anyway. Even if he did I would feel like a loser. _Shall we head up to the surface and get your land legs back, Lord Percy_.

"Sure," I replied. I asked Kyros, "Do you want to come?"

He was looking down at the ground like he was thinking about something. After another moment of silence, he raised his head and stared at me with a tender face. "Yeah, I'll come. Let me ask, how many human years old are you, Percy?"

"Thirteen, turning fourteen in two months."

"Okay."

_Let's go_, said Delphin. _Time runs short each moment that is spent speaking._

Then we swam toward the surface. I wanted so badly to go back to my friends, but I had done my duty. I'd protected my friends for long enough so that they could escape...hopefully. Plus, I needed to regain my strength. Who knows what I could run into when heading back to camp?

So, for the rest of the day, in a part of Georgia I didn't recognize, I spent the rest of my time practicing with Riptide against air. I was still slightly unbalanced with the sword as I was used to either my long-lost knife or a shield in or on my left hand. Delphin stayed up near the surface helping Kyros train, but they spent ten minute sessions watching me fighting techniques above ground. I pushed myself to my limits every day, and as time passed I could feel my strength and skill with a sword return quickly.

It was exactly what was going to happen for the next two weeks. That made a total of four weeks in Atlantis. Every day I would head out to just practice on my own against nature. Sometimes, I would think about the fact that Kronos was rising to bring my anger up. Sometimes, I would think about how my mother passed away to raise the level of anger I felt.

Then I would head back to Atlantis before dusk and meet with Kyros and Delphin. We would talk and eat dinner together. My father never ate at the same time as me. We usually had chicken, beef or pork. We never had seafood. Everything was doing great until I had to leave...not that after I left things weren't good anymore. It was just that my stay in Atlantis was actually a pretty calm stay. Triton eventually came to me and declared a neutrality between us.

Then on the morning of the day that marked my fourth week in Atlantis, Poseidon summoned me to the throne room. I wasn't sure what he wanted to talk about, but I hoped it was some sort of pep talk.

Surprisingly, it was actually a pretty short conversation.

"Percy, my boy," he said grinning. "You are completely back to normal. Just four weeks to get yourself back to your previous self. Now are you glad you are the son of me? You can't heal yourself with air!"

I laughed. "Well, I guess so. Anyway, what do you want to talk about? If I'm good enough to go, can't I go?"

He sighed. "Yes, but I need to give you something first." He held out his hand and it glowed. A bright light shined and his hand flashed. I was temporarily blinded. Then, when I could see again, I saw something in his hand that I never thought I would be able to ever find again. It was my knife. That switchblade that I had left in the jean pocket at Meriwether. I snatched it out of my father's hand.

"Whoa! How did you find this?" I asked happily.

He smiled. "I am not Zeus. Though he got his daughter's weapons back for her, it is only because he wants her attention. With you, I would have given this back for your birthday. I know I'm not the most important figure in your life and will probably never be, but I do what I can do to help you."

I gave my dad a huge grin. "Thanks, dad. I remember when I first got this. It was that daughter of Athena in Miami who passed away. She gave it to me. I even remember the weird words she said: _Wisdom's daughter walks alone, The Mark of Athena burns through Rome._" I suddenly froze, stunned for a second. Burns through_ Rome?_

_I wondered if there were Romans out there? _I had thought. _As a Greek, I swear upon the River Styx to never tell anyone about the Romans except for those who already know..._

I looked at Poseidon, whose face was scrunched up tightly. "Dad. I have a question." I looked intently at my father's expression. "Are...are there Romans? Like Roman demigods?"

"I suppose if you already have suspicions, you should know," he said. He sighed and invited me to sit down. "This is going to be a long story. You should sit tight."

"Sit? There aren't any chairs."

"Stand tight, then," my father said. "Now, the story begins back when twin brothers named Romulus and Remus founded Rome. Though Remus was killed, they were considered to be the founders of the great civilization of ancient Rome."

"I remember that story," I mused. "I think I read it in a library. Yeah, I know. It's hard to believe I read books, but it really depends on the book. Plus, it was an audio book."

My father just shook his head while chuckling. "Anyway, as history progressed, Zeus decided to head to Rome to check it out. It had grown quickly and spread into a large empire that looked more powerful than Greece. Then, as he began travelling there every day, the other gods followed his lead. So did Hades and I. We flocked there like birds and quickly, we had been given names. Their founders had been descendants of a Trojan prince."

"Aeneas."

"Precisely. I shouldn't be telling you as it is very dangerous, but when you get to camp, Chiron will be able to talk about this in depth. He swore on the River Styx that he would not say anything to anyone who doesn't know or until it is a time of danger." My father looked around for any signs of mer-people coming. "After the Roman empire spread, demigods have been produced for both Greeks and Romans. The Greek way is exactly like Camp Half-Blood. The Roman way, however...they change the view of their gods. Pluto and Neptune are less important. Minerva is less important. Mars is more important. They add a goddess named Bellona. To be honest with you, she never existed before the Romans. She was born by Jupiter and Juno, and quickly became the female prowess of Rome. Jupiter became 'optimus' and 'maximus.' Then legacies were accepted into the legions. Legacies are descendants of half-bloods. Now, originally there were hundreds of legions in the Roman Empire. Their military power was very strong and though they respected the Greeks, they were threatened by them. That's when Rome sacked Greece and overtook their lands. The children of the Greek versions of the gods fled in exile to Constantinople before migrating west toward France, Spain, England and then finally in the United States and Canada. However, so did the Romans. During the American Civil War, war broke out between the Romans and the Greeks. You know about the history of that war, correct?" I nodded. "Ulysses S. Grant, son of Zeus; General Sherman, son of Ares; Harriet Tubman, daughter of Hermes; and Abraham Lincoln, son of Athena were for the Union. Most Greeks fought for the Union and most Romans fought for the Confederates. I'm not saying all, but most. Then, the bloodshed was too much for Zeus to handle so a layer of Mist was put in between them so that they would forget about each other. The gods do their best to keep them separate. You have met Romans yourself, and you are lucky the older sister doesn't like the Roman camp otherwise you may have killed yourself or caused the death of two innocent young women. You must be careful where you go to in the future, Percy. The Romans aren't as friendly as your friends at Camp Half-Blood. Then that's the end of the story."

"So...basically, Romans and Greeks want to kill each other, but they no longer know of each other's existence?"

"Yes."

"Wow," I said. "This is a lot of information to take in."

"Yes it is," my father said. "Now, I'll escort you out and have Delphin take you to Long Island Sound to Camp Half-Blood."

He sounded rushed. "What's the rush, dad?"

"Amphitrite scheduled a meeting that starts in two minutes," my father replied anxiously. "I need to go soon otherwise she'll get mad at me again. Trust me, I love your mother, but I love Amphitrite too. It comes with being a god."

"Okay...sure," I replied. "You know, I can just find Delphin by myself. Is that all right with you? Besides, he'll know whether I'm lying or not about the fact that I can go back. Is that okay?"

"Yes, actually. That would be preferable. I'm sorry I can't spend more time with you, Percy, but for some reason, the number of meetings have been skyrocketing these days." He winked to let me know that he was being sarcastic as he was talking in a deadly serious voice. "Anyway, I will let you do your business, Percy. I will see you soon!"

I smiled and quickly exited the room to look for Delphin.

_At this time of day he should be training his soldiers near the barren land where a nice coral reef used to be...like forty thousand years ago._ So, I went there and _not _to my surprise, he was barking (or squeaking) orders at his mermen.

"Hey, Delphin!" I called out. The dolphin turned towards me.

_Hello, Lord Percy. I assume it is time to go?_

"Yeah."

_All right, everybody. Kyros is in charge. Make sure you tell him what to do if he gets anything wrong. Every twenty minutes change who is in charge. Whoever is in charge before that change chooses_, Delphin chattered. _GO!_

"Yes, sir!" they cried. Kyros stepped to the front and waved goodbye to me. I waved back before leaving with Delphin to shoot towards Long Island Sound.

_So, is it Camp Half-Blood?_ Delphin asked. _The nereids in Long Island Sound are nice enough._

"Yeah, Long Island Sound on the northern side," I told him. "You know where to go because I sure as hell don't. Last time you told me where we were when on shore was in Georgia. The next day, we take a different route but end up in the same place."

_Yes, I know, Percy_, Delphin whistled.

It took us a long time, but Delphin was a quick swimmer and we got there within four or five hours. It sounded like a long time, but I was in the ocean. I could do whatever I wanted...except for destroying Kronos.

When I saw the coast of Camp Half-Blood in the distance, I stopped. I thanked Delphin for all of the things that he and Kyros had done for me in the past couple of weeks. I thanked him for all of the fun, hard work, and training that we had done together. I also told him that if I could visit sometime, I would. Delphin countered that Amphitrite would be mad at that. I didn't really care about her. Like me or like me not, I was going to die soon (in terms of the gods' years) anyways so why get so hung up on hating me. She should've known that that was what the gods were like.

After Delphin left, I willed the currents and the tide to pull me to the shore.

I got to shore and walked up onto Fireworks Beach. I smiled as I saw Beckendorf and Silena taking a walk on their own. "Should I bother them or not?" I asked myself. I looked at them one more time.

They were laughing joyfully, but looked a little sad. To be honest, they looked really depressed. It was as if something had pulled happiness away from them.

I frowned and was just about to call out to them when a conch horn sounded. It was the sign that camp was being attacked. Beckendorf and Silena looked at each other for a moment before sprinting over the small hill that blocked the view of most of Camp Half-Blood and up towards the border.

I looked up and saw a giant drakon attacking the pine tree up front where a group of border patrol was trying to fight it off. The Golden Fleece glittered in the branch of the pine tree, spreading warmth around the area of camp. The place felt much better, but there was still something off about the mood.

I ran around towards the drakon, ready to attack it as soon as I could. I took the long way, circling around the lava wall and around the amphitheatre. Then I reached the magical borders of the camp and bolted through the trees. I climbed up one and started jumping and swinging across the branches. I don't know how I did it exactly, but I had just come back from Atlantis to a different feeling of camp and it was now being attacked by a drakon. That drakon wouldn't live to see the light of day.

I finally reached the last tree before swinging onto the drakon's back. I dug handholds and footholds into the beast's back and began climbing

"Hold fire!" I heard Luke yell. "Who the hell is trying to attack the drakon like that?"

"Whoever it is," Thalia called, "I'm going to strike it with lightning! Beware!"

_Crap_, I thought. I couldn't get hit by lightning, but I would die if I let go because I was too high. So my only option was to kill it before Thalia summon lightning. "Don't!" I screamed. "Hold on a second!"

"Who are you?" Luke yelled.

"A friend!" I screamed back at him. "Your friend!"

Then I grabbed the mouth of the animal and used it to pull myself up. I uncapped Riptide and stabbed the drakon right through its eye. It wailed and hissed in pain. I stabbed its other eye and spun around so that I was on its back once more. I stabbed the drakon one last time through the neck, and then beheaded the beast. I slid down the drakon's back as it dissolved into golden dust and landed on the ground with a light thump.

I turned towards the group that had assembled at Half-Blood Hill who were looking at me stunned. Luke was the first to recover. "Percy? Percy _Jackson_? You're..." His face broke out into an enormous smile. "He's alive!"

"Percy!" Thalia screamed. That broke everyone out of their stupor. The entire group assembled on Half-Blood Hill cheered gleefully as they realized that I was back. I didn't think that I was so special, but I wouldn't back away from cheering. For once I think I deserved something positive. Even the gods had to have thought I have been through too much for a thirteen year old boy.

Thalia crashed into me like a bull and I tumbled to the ground. "You made it back." I heard Thalia's voice crack again. She brought her head up to look at me. "Wait until Annie hears about this. She'll be unbelieving. Just like I am right now."

"I promised you I'd come back," I said. "I try my best to keep my promises."

"You're alive?!" Clarisse exclaimed stepping forward. "Well..." She trailed off. To the people behind her it would seem as though she hated that fact. But I could see the look on her face.

"Nice to know the slayer of Polyphemus is glad to see me!" I called.

She looked surprised. Then her cabinmates flocked around her. "Wait, what? I thought they said the runt killed the Cyclops? Did you actually?"

A small grin appeared on her face as her cabinmates pulled her away. She held up one finger. _One time, Jackson_, she mouthed. _Cool for one time_.

I grinned back at her. "Hey, Mark!. Sherman! I'll tell you guys how she beat the beast later! It was incredible!"

The Ares cabin cheered again as they moved to the back of the group.

Annabeth finally broke through. "Percy, you're alive! Oh my gods, you had me so worried when Thalia came back crying and devastated. I thought you were dead!" She gave me a tight hug. Luke came up from behind Annabeth.

"Whoa, Annie," he said. "Don't kill him just after he came back. Besides, Tyson needs to hug him. The big guy was offered a chance to go to the Cyclopes Forges in Poseidon's underwater palace, but he declined until he got to see you again."

"Really?" I said. I looked up at the hill where I was hoping to see the big guy again. "I just came from Atlantis. He should've gone there. We would've been able to meet and talk. And also—"

Suddenly, the air shimmered next to me and a big toothy-grinned Cyclops appeared next to me. "BIG BROTHER!" he bellowed. "You are alive? Not dead?"

I laughed. "No, big guy. I'm alive. I wish I could talk to you in person, but this'll do for now."

"I will come and meet you when I can, big brother," he said. "Daddy says you were just here. I missed you by half of a day, but getting to underwater palace is very easy. Rainbow was happy to take me here. I still miss seeing you, big brother. Come visit, or I will come visit you and camp for friends!"

"Sure thing, buddy," I grinned. "I promise."

Tyson smiled and then swiped his hand through the mist.

"Well, look who's making a lot of promises," Thalia said. Her face looked a little teary. I wondered if she had cried earlier today about my "death."

"Hey, I do my best to please everyone," I replied nonchalantly.

"Geez, Perce," said Luke. "You don't have to sacrifice yourself for everyone. Let people sacrifice for you sometimes. If you do all the work, you'll eventually wear yourself down too much and then you won't be able to help anyone ever again."

Then I heard the clopping of hooves. I turned to watch as Chiron pulled to a stop in front of me. He gave me a weary smile. "I would say I can relax now, but that would just be too soon. I expect you want to talk to me about something?"

"How'd you know?"

"Thousands of years of training heroes," he said. "But either way it is good to have you back, Percy. You've had many people worried, like Silena and Charles over there."

I looked over. They were looking at me happily.

I grinned and looked around at most of my friends, Grover probably being on an expedition to find Pan again. I looked up to the top of the hill where people were congratulating her on defeating the Cyclops Polyphemus. I looked down at myself and finally felt good about one thing. Today was a victory for me.

"Yeah," I replied. "It is good to be back.

* * *

**Hey everyone,**

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**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	20. Chariot Racing

**Hello everyone,**

**Thank you all for reading my story. Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts from Rick Riordan's _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters_.**

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SharkAttack719**

* * *

**Περσεύς 19**

**Chariot Racing**

"The chariot races were reinstated, Percy," Chiron told me when we were all alone in the Big House. "They will continue to go on, though with _my_ precautions rather than Tantalus'."

"That makes it a whole lot safer," I grinned.

"I do hope so."

"Yeah, so everyone seems much happier now," I noticed. "Did healing the tree make camp feel more safe and more alive?"

"Yes, it did," Chiron replied. "There was this one point after we put the Golden Fleece on the branch of the tree when it glowed and spirits shot out. I hope Alexander had a good time stuck in that tree."

I gave him a confused look.

"He was Zeus' son who sacrificed himself for Camp Half-Blood when...when we split." Chiron seemed to pick his words smoothly and quickly. Usually Chiron could pick up whether people knew things or didn't, but at the moment, he seemed a little worried and seemed not to be able to tell that I knew.

"Chiron. I know about the Romans and Greeks, and about the American Civil War," I told the old centaur. His face darkened a touch.

"So you know, child," he said grimly. "Well, since you do, I must tell you this: no one other than yourself should ever find out about the Greeks and Romans. The last time it happened the death toll was so high that Mist had to be put between the two camps to separate them. I know it seems as though you have been talking about this for a while, now, but you have just come back. You need not worry about the rivalry between the two sides for now."

"My father said you made an oath to never talk about this to anyone who didn't know or until the time of danger has come," I continued, ignoring Chiron's attempt at evasion. "He told me that you couldn't go into too much depth, but tell me one thing Chiron. The American Civil War...the _others_, like Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee...they were Romans? And they attacked Camp Half-Blood. You said camp had split because of disagreement. The South had wanted slaves, right? Just like Rome. But Abraham Lincoln, apparently a son of Athena, and his government wanted to get rid of it. Why? If the South had slaves before him, and Greeks and Romans had been rivals before the Civil War, why wasn't anything done before."

Chiron grimaced. "You wouldn't want to hear the details." There was something laced in his voice. It almost seemed as if he knew something was going to happen, that he was anticipating for a terrifying event to occur...like even worse than Kronos.

"Chiron—"

"I'm sorry, child." Chiron's face was abnormally pale. "_Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift. That is why it is called present._ Isn't that how the mortal writers perceive it? What I take from it is that focusing on now is more important that living in the past or always being too anxious about what is to come in the future. Percy, you have let yourself down, but that is only because you believe you have let yourself down. You must live in the present and with what you have in order to be happy. Focus on now, not yesterday and not tomorrow. After all, any hint about the future can be trickery or lies. Take Tyche's fortune cookies for example. Nemesis takes her time changing the so called 'luck'; however, all of them are lies. Tyche cares about those who sacrifice to her, not meaningless mortals. Remember, minors gods are gods as well."

I looked down at the ground, avoiding Chiron's eyes. In most ways, the wise centaur was right, but I still wanted to know about the Greeks and Romans.

"Knowing too much about your future is a dangerous thing, and knowing something that is as dangerous as this subject may ultimately lead to chaos," Chiron said. "Now, like I was saying before, the chariot race is on for this Friday. You'd better find a partner. Then, after the chariot race is the weekly Capture the Flag. Clarisse holds the laurels. Ally yourself with a side. Just a hint, Luke, Thalia and Annabeth are opposing Clarisse. Will you go with your friends, or with someone you don't usually get along with?"

I looked curiously at Chiron. There was always an undertone with him, though most of the time no one could catch what the Hades he meant. _By the way, Lord Hades, I'm referring to Hades as the Underworld, not the ruler._

"Just in case you're listening," I muttered.

"What was that?" Chiron asked.

"Nothing. So...do I just..."

"Pretend you never left."

* * *

"So who's teamed up with who?"

"It's cabins, Percy. Annabeth will be with Malcolm, Luke will be with whoever he chooses, Beckendorf will be with one of his siblings, Clarisse will be with one of her siblings, Silena with be with one of her siblings and so on."

"So you're gonna be by yourself?"

"Well...I was thinking..."

"That we should work together?"

"Yeah. This time we won't fight to the death trying to design our chariot."

I grinned at Thalia. I had come to her after my talk with Chiron to ask her about the chariot race. So far the only thing we had come to talk about was the _teams _for the chariot race. They were apparently cabin based, but Thalia and I only had one cabin member each so that wouldn't work very well for either of us. Honestly, I thought we were probably going to lose the race, but we could give building a chariot a shot, right? The race was only a couple days away, though. There was also the fact that our teamwork wasn't always constant.

"I hope so, Ms. Grace."

She scowled. "Don't start that, Jackson."

I laughed. "You know I love pestering you."

"Actually, what I do know about you is that you love following your mother's advice, you lived on the streets for years, you are very loyal and kind to friends, and you are a very just person, sort of like Uncle Hades," Thalia stated. "I've never heard you say you love pestering me."

"Well maybe during the school year I developed a habit to pester you and like it," I suggested.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Percy. Now, I know you're probably thinking _how the hell are we going to build a chariot_, but I got that covered. Tyson made one for the race when he and I teamed up. We didn't win because of Beckendorf and his Greek fire, but we came close. The chariot rides well, and if horses didn't dislike me to a certain extent, I believe we could have won."

"Really? Tyson made a chariot already? Well, that sounds promising. You know, he _is_ a pretty good engineer."

"And he also really loves you as a big brother," she added. She gave me a soft smile, which totally contrasted the dark, goth look she wore. "He never believed you were dead, though after everybody kept saying it he seemed to begin to believe. I think that's why he left for the underwater palace. He wanted me to give you this." She pulled out a watch from her jacket pocket. It was just a regular watch.

"What do I need a watch for?" I asked puzzled.

She shrugged and put it on my wrist. "He just said to hit the button when you get in trouble."

I nodded. "All right."

We stood there for another ten to twenty seconds. Camp activity bustled around us like usual, the occasional person saying hi to us. Annabeth and Luke even passed us once, though Annabeth looked way more comfortable hanging out with Luke. She didn't seem to posses that _yearning-for-his-love_ feeling anymore. She looked at ease, like they'd come a long way in the past four weeks. I was happy for them. I mean, Annabeth was like my little sister. Athena may not favor me, and Poseidon may not favor Annabeth; but Annabeth and I got along. That's all that matters.

Luke himself looked more extroverted, as if he'd had a dream making him realize being quiet wouldn't help him get over Thalia. Like they say...

"If you love something, let it go. If it comes back, it's yours. If it doesn't, it was never yours in the first place," I had muttered as they passed.

"Cheesy quotes for the win, huh?" Thalia snorted.

"It's true, is it not? You loved Luke and you let him go. He came back, so he was yours. The only difference was that you denied re-entrance. You were willing to sacrifice for Annabeth's happiness." I looked around. "Want to go to the beach? I feel more comfortable talking there."

"Sure."

Then we headed to the beach and I continued what I was going to say about sacrificing for Annabeth.

"Sacrifice is a great thing," I said.

"Are you sure?" Thalia countered. "If you sacrifice everything, you can end tragically. Remember your mom? Almost you yourself."

I smiled. "Well, if you sacrifice enough, you get good things in return. You have to know what is worth sacrificing for. Not everything is worth sacrificing for."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. It just comes to me. Don't you ever have those gut feelings?"

"Not very often. Instincts isn't something that comes to me easily. For me, I need to know. I guess your instincts comes from being on the streets on your own for so long and because of your dad's unpredictability. You never know what you can know. Besides, at first, someone might think you're dumb but—"

"I'm slow, not dumb."

"Exactly."

"Yeah." I looked out across Long Island Sound. "Do you ever wonder what it would be like if we didn't have to fight the Titans? What it would be like if we were just Big Three demigods when it didn't really matter? Do you think you, Annabeth, Luke and I would have normal lives?"

She smiled sadly. "I've always wished that, Percy. I don't want to be who I am right now, though everything in this life, so far, is going all right. It's just...they say the life of a hero is always tragic. The life of a heroine is usually lost in the echo. Demigods like you and I are always dragged into this chaos without any mercy. My father told me many times in dreams that my life, your life...our life, will be difficult and with a lot of suffering and pain."

"Your dad seems to really want to be involved with you," I remarked.

She gave me a small grin. "It still doesn't change the fact that he's a jerk."

Thunder rumbled in the sky.

Thalia just shook her head with a couple chuckles.

We stood in more silence as the sun began to set on us. The waves lightly pounded at the shore in a relaxed mood, sparkling as the last bits of the rays of sunlight shined down on them. Reflections of light bounced everywhere off of the water, sometimes shining straight into my eyes and temporarily blinding me.

"So, you were _crying and devastated_ when I _died_?" I asked Thalia.

Thalia glanced at me nervously. "Well, I mean, yeah. Who wouldn't be if one of the three people they trusted the most was close to dying? That wound looked vicious and I was worried that you wouldn't make it. Besides, Annabeth and Luke also saw the stabbing. They just didn't think you'd disappear. Also...something you talked about to me before we got captured made me realize that...well, maybe I don't have to have feelings for Luke and that someone else who I already know is that _love-of-my-life_."

I stared at her until I slowly understood who was the other person. "Oh. I—"

I cut myself off. Sure Thalia was pretty, but I didn't feel that way toward her...did I? More confusion, chaos and drama for me to deal with. That's just great. My relationship with Thalia was more like a sibling one and we fought over stuff easily. We were very similar to each other. Us dating wouldn't work. But as much as I tried to force these thoughts into my head, there was just this overpowering factor that said, "Why not? Why wouldn't this work? You've worked together and fixed your problems in the past. Plus, you love her. You can't deny it."

Did I? Could I feel it? I asked myself those questions, but I couldn't get an answer. It was as if I had gone numb. Could I? Should I? Would I?

I remembered that impulsive kiss that she gave me before my escape from camp. Was it truly impulsive? Or did Thalia actually have hidden feelings for me that she didn't realize until now? I couldn't be certain, but I figured that had to be how she fell for me.

"I'm sorry if it makes you uncomfortable but—"

"It's fine, Thalia. Well, I'll see you tomorrow. The chariot race is in two days and I want to make sure we know how to run this track well."

"Yeah... Okay."

And awkwardly, we parted ways for the day.

* * *

The night before the race, I stayed late at the stables. I was talking to our horses, giving them one final brushing, when somebody right behind me said, "Fine animals, horses. Wish I'd thought of them."

A middle-aged guy in a postal carrier outfit was leaning against the stable door.

He was slim, with curly black hair under his white pith helmet, and he had a mailbag slung over his shoulder.

"Hermes," I said. He gave me a pointed look. I just grinned, knowing gods love being worshipped.

He shook his head. "My, my, Percy. You really are a son of Poseidon. Very disobedient. That'll kill you one day."

"Well, it's just who I am."

"Anyway, I am here for two reasons," he stated. "The first, thank you for saving Luke from being a guinea pig for the rest of his life. And don't trust the son of Nemesis. I am not just using you. You are an essential part of this world and you are a human being."

"Yeah, but the gods _use_ humans. I'm not saying you guys are bad but..."

Hermes sighed. "We are godly beings, Percy. You have to understand that. The hardest part about being a god is that you must often act indirectly, especially when it comes to your own children. If we were to intervene every time our children had a problem…well, that would only create more problems and more resentment."

I thought about this for a moment. What if my father never acted indirectly and only directly? But I couldn't answer that because my father had to act directly toward me. Many times if he hadn't I would have died.

"If my father never acted directly, I would have died a long time ago," I said. "I know not everything is perfect, and you gods can't get everything right, but I know that some of you act like you are perfect and know everything."

"So, Kronos has kind of gotten to you," Hermes analyzed. He sighed once more. "But I guess you are right. Percy, I'm the god who travels to the mortal world the most. And I know that very well."

In the distance, the conch horn sounded, signaling curfew.

"You should get to bed," Hermes said. "I've helped you get into quite enough trouble this summer already. The second reason I came was to make this delivery."

"A delivery?"

"I _am _the messenger of the gods, Percy." He took an electronic signature pad from his mailbag and handed it to me. "Sign there, please."

I picked up the stylus before realizing it was entwined with a pair of tiny green snakes.

"Stop wriggling, guys," I said. The two snakes were tickling my hand as the slithered around the stylus. "I'm kind of ticklish."

_Well, you were stabbed, _George said. _This annoys you more?_

_For once_, Martha scolded, _George is right_.

"Well, I'm sorry," I said sardonically.

Martha and George wriggled under my fingers, forming a kind of pencil grip like the ones my special ed teacher made me use in second grade.

I signed my name and gave the pad back to Hermes.

In exchange, he handed me a sea-blue envelope.

"Good luck tomorrow," Hermes said. "Fine team of horses you have there, though you'll excuse me if I root for the Hermes cabin."

_And don't be too discouraged when you read it, dear, _Martha told me. _He _does _have your interests at heart._

"What do you mean?" I asked.

_Don't mind her, _George said. _And next time, remember, snakes work for tips._

"Enough, you two," Hermes said. "Good-bye, Percy. For now."

Small white wings sprouted from his pith helmet. He began to glow, and I knew enough about the gods to avert my eyes before he revealed his true divine form. With a brilliant white flash he was gone, and I was alone with the horses.

I stared at the blue envelope in my hands. It was addressed in strong but elegant handwriting that I'd seen once before, on a package Poseidon had sent me last summer.

_Percy Jackson_

_Camp Half-Blood_

_Farm Road 3.141_

_Long Island, New York 11954_

I opened the envelope and unfolded the paper.

A short, neat sentence was printed in the middle of the paper:

_Go for it._

* * *

The next morning, everybody was buzzing about the chariot race, though they kept glancing nervously toward the sky like they expected to see Stymphalian birds gathering. None did. It was a beautiful summer day with blue sky and plenty of sunshine. The camp had started to look the way it should look: the meadows were green and lush; the white columns gleamed on the Greek buildings; dryads played happily in the woods.

And I was miserable. I'd been lying awake all night, thinking about Poseidon's "advice."

_Go for it_.

I didn't know exactly what he was referring to, but I had a good idea. Did everybody have to know everything that happened between demigods? I mean, everyone probably knew I was stabbed. Zeus was probably longing for my death. Did my own father have to invade with my love life?

Martha the snake had told me not to feel discouraged. What had she meant by that? Could there possibly be another meaning for the phrase? Or did it mean I shouldn't feel that going for Thalia was a bad thing. I tried to turn my thoughts to the race.

As Thalia and I drove onto the track, I couldn't help but admire what Tyson had done to the chariot. The carriage gleamed with bronze wheels were realigned with magical suspension so we glided along with hardly a bump. The rigging for the horses was so perfectly balanced that the team turned at the slightest tug of the reins.

Tyson had also made us two javelins, each with three buttons on the shaft. The first button primed the javelin to explode on impact, releasing razor wire that would tangle and shred an opponent's wheels. The second button produced a blunt (but still very painful) bronze spearhead designed to knock a driver out of his carriage. The third button brought up a grappling hook that could be used to lock onto an enemy's chariot or push it away.

The added fact that Thalia had lightning powers made me feel like we were overpowered.

Chiron was at the starting line, ready to blow the conch.

I looked over at Athena's chariot. Annabeth grinned at me. "Good luck, Percy. You're gonna need it."

"Oh, I thought you always think before you speak, Annabeth," I said with fake surprise.

"Ha ha, very funny."

"Annabeth's right, Perce. You're gonna need the luck, but _I'm_ gonna win," Luke called. I turned to his chariot. His right hand man was Connor Stoll. Travis was in the stands, but Hermes kids were good with trickery. I guarantee that he had something planned.

"Whatever, you guys," I said. "Thalia and I will win. You just watch."

Then Chiron blew the starting signal.

The horses knew what to do. We shot down the track so fast I would've fallen out if my arms hadn't been wrapped in the leather reins. Thalia held on tight to the rail. The wheels glided beautifully. We took the first turn a full chariot-length ahead of Clarisse, who was busy trying to fight off a sword attack from Luke in the Hermes chariot.

"Anybody on our flank?" I asked.

"Incoming!" Thalia yelled and threw a javelin in grappling-hook-mode. It knocked away a lead-weighted net that would have entangled us both. Apollo's chariot had come up on our flank. Before Annabeth could rearm herself, the Apollo warrior threw a javelin into our right wheel. The javelin shattered, but not before snapping some of our spokes. Our chariot lurched and wobbled. I was sure the wheel would collapse altogether, but we somehow kept going.

Annabeth zoomed past us and the Apollo chariot.

"Damnit!" cursed Thalia. She blasted lightning at the wheels of the Apollo chariot causing the rider and the fighter's ride to become a lot more uncomfortable. "Go, Percy!"

"C'mon guys," I said to the horses. "I have a lot of apples for you afterwards. Hold on, Thals!"

The horses bolted forward even faster. They ran so quickly that it almost felt like Arion was pulling the chariot. You know, the fastest horse in the world.

About two seconds after Annabeth cleared the finish line for the final lap, we did. We could gain on her if nobody could catch up to us. Unfortunately, someone was able to catch up slightly to us and gave us a bit of a problem. It was Beckendorf in the Hephaestus chariot.

I held our own chariot together through the second turn, despite the groaning of the right wheel. We passed the starting line and thundered into our final lap.

The axle creaked and moaned. The wobbling wheel was making us lose speed, even though the horses were responding to my every command, running like a well-oiled machine.

The Hephaestus team was still gaining.

Beckendorf grinned as he pressed a button on his command console. Steel cables shot out of the front of his mechanical horses, wrapping around our back rail. Our chariot shuddered as Beckendorf's winch system started working—pulling us backward while Beckendorf pulled himself forward.

Thalia quickly burst into action. She used her spear to slice at the string. She was lucky that she was using a spear and not a pike because a pike only really had one super sharp point. Thalia's spear was specially designed that the sides were sharpened edges as well. She was able to cut the rope away before Beckendorf could gain enough ground on us.

We shuddered again as the winch system released, and the chariot shot forward.

"Whoa!" Thalia stumbled and just managed to hold on to the rail.

"You okay back there?" I yelled.

"I'm good!"

"Come on," I yelled. "Let's catch up to Annabeth!"

"Got it," she said. She gripped her spear tightly. "I'm ready to throw this. We'll win. Luke's too far behind to catch up, and Clarisse's won't be able to make it in time. As long as our wheel holds up."

We were coming up on the last turn and Annabeth was only a couple meters ahead of us, Malcolm staring at us empty-handed. He looked as though he'd used his weapons early to get the lead. Suddenly, behind us, two chariots exploded: the Hephaestus and Ares chariots. Greek fire engulfed the chariots, Clarisse cursing Beckendorf and running after him with a sword in her hand.

"Percy! Annabeth's going to win! I missed my shot!" Thalia told me.

I cursed to myself. There was no other way to sabotage the Athena chariot, and because of that, Annabeth would win the chariot. I would've given up if not for the watch. Thalia hadn't told me if it had any real purpose at all but to tell time; however, Tyson had supposedly said press the button. So, I punched the stopwatch button. Instantly, the watch changed. It expanded, the metal rim spiraling outward like an old-fashioned camera shutter, a leather strap wrapping around my forearm until I was holding a round war shield four feet wide, the inside soft leather, the outside polished bronze engraved with designs I didn't have time to examine.

"Grab the reins!" I ordered Thalia.

I quickly pulled it off my arm, and threw it at Annabeth's chariot's wheel like a Frisbee. It shattered the wheel of her chariot. It exploded into what seemingly was a million fragments, and Annabeth and Malcolm spilled out of the chariot. No longer having a leader, the horses reared in confusion and stampeded towards the stands.

The crowd scattered, escaping the danger of wild horses. But a lot of the crowd cheered, Annabeth's cabinmates giving us a reluctant round of applause. We nearly crashed because of our wheel, but it held and we thundered past the finish line.

Luke pulled up to the finish line a good five seconds after us and grinned. "Good race, guys! And you know I was joking when I said I would win. Jeez, Annabeth really has to know me. She tied up Travis who was going to set off a Greek fire bomb in all of the chariots."

"Congrats, you two," Annabeth said, half of her clothes covered in dirt.

"Thanks." I high-fived Thalia and gave her a hug. "It means a lot coming from the runner-up."

"Ha ha, very funny."

"Anyways," Luke interrupted. "We'd better get going now. Capture the Flag is going to happen soon, and Annabeth and I are teamed up together. See you guys."

"Yeah, see ya!"

I watched as Annabeth and Luke left, walking away and talking as if there had never been problems between them. They laughed and cheerily talked, not caring what others thought of them.

"Wow, okay they've really changed," I said.

"They should have," Thalia told me. "I spent so much time on my own so that I isolated myself from them. They had to have gotten along to be able to hang around normally without you. Don't think that everyone was depressed when they heard that you were probably dead."

I smiled. "Like I've always said, I wouldn't want it any either way. Getting credit is totally overrated."

"You can say that again."

"So, what are the teams for Capture the Flag?"

She gave me a sly grin. "I'm not telling you. No way."

"Oh, come on! Really? What's wrong with you?" I complained. I pouted like a little kid. "It's like everyone's changed in the past few weeks. It's as if I'm stepping into a whole new dimension."

"This isn't sci-fi, Percy." Thalia rolled her eyes. "And it's not supernatural. This is _real_ life. Plus...I'm still not going to tell you. You're going to have to find out soon enough." I gave her a stern glare. "Fine, I'll give you a hint. You're with a team that you don't exactly like."

I scrunched up my eyebrows trying to think who I don't exactly like. Well, for one there's the Ares cabin; then the number two spot goes to the Aphrodite cabin except for Silena. That's really only it. _Wait a minute..._

"Oh no, _really_?" I exclaimed loudly.

Thalia started laughing hysterically.

"Oh shut up, Thalia. What if you were on that team?"

She continued laughing.

"Thalia," I said in an impatient voice. "Stop laughing."

She was still laughing, not bothering to respond to my demand. I growled in frustration and she laughed even harder. What in the world would make her shut up? I thought to past days, weeks, months and years to find out what would make Thalia stop laughing. I felt really frustrated when I couldn't figure out any way to unless...

I grinned. As Thalia was laughing, I stepped close to her, grabbed her waist and pulled her closer to me so that we could feel each other's breaths. Her breath hitched when I did that and I could almost sense her mind racing and her heart pounding. She immediately stopped laughing. The weird thing was that I didn't expect this to feel...abnormal. I mean, it's not like we danced together a lot, but I thought it would just feel fun to make her look surprised and nervous. It wasn't like that at all. Instead, I felt my own version of the butterflies pop up. My own heart thumped in my chest, and I felt like I was sweating buckets.

My mind blanked for a second and the next thing I knew I was on the ground, my hands behind my back supporting me as I was leaning backwards, as if I were trying to scramble away. Thalia was standing above me, looking hurt and shocked at the same time.

"I...Thalia—"

"Huh?" She turned to face me. It looked like she was trying to hide it, but I could tell she was hurt.

"Thalia, I—"

"Oh, _that_?" She referred to it as if it were a dangerous thing. "No, no. It's fine, Percy. I totally understand. I mean, I know you've always liked Annabeth."

"Wait, Thalia—"

"It's fine, Percy," she said. Stiffly and briskly she walked away.

"Wait, Thalia!" I called. Other campers had been long gone, and that seemed like a symbol to me. It was desolate in this area in terms of people. No one was around, everyone had gone off to do their separate things. To me, it was a symbol that if I continued this way, no one would help me in the future. My future would become desolate and empty.

I looked down at myself and suddenly felt like stabbing myself. Why would I act like that to someone who was pretty much my best friend? Was I turning into Luke from earlier, neglecting Annabeth, who fell in love with him? Thalia fell in love with me it seemed, so why couldn't I feel normal about it?

The more I thought about it, the more I felt that maybe it wasn't because I didn't love her back. I had "died" and just come back, feeling like I'd only been gone for a few days. Here at camp, the four weeks must have been agonizing for Thalia to wait, and I just came back and ruined it all. I admit, I may have felt something for Annabeth in the past, but now I realize something about myself that I have never realized before.

I'm falling in love.

* * *

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SharkAttack719**


	21. Capture the Flag

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* * *

**Περσεύς 20**

**Capture the Flag**

The camp was bursting with excitement. Another Capture the Flag game was about to start, and the teams were officially announced. It would be Athena, Hermes, Dionysus, Thalia and Hephaestus against Ares, Aphrodite, Demeter, Apollo and me.

Honestly, I think Thalia and I were the only ones who weren't having a good time. She was flat out avoiding me now. Every time she saw me she'd bolt away...not literally but it felt like it. Was this what it felt like when I was avoiding her about the topic? I was totally confused about all of this.

I tried to boost my spirits by thinking that my team would totally win, but since the other team had Athena's cabin, they were probably going to win.

I stood glumly at the edge of the amphitheatre as the campfire glowed brightly and happily. There was some banter between both sides, but I didn't feel like participating. My world had just crashed down on me. All the emotions that had been tucked in, like a small child in bed, had been let loose by the dawning sunrise of a new time to come.

_Go for it._

Was it a warning?

I just wanted to get this Capture the Flag game over with and go to bed. I'd messed things up too badly for me to want to continue this day. I would undoubtedly regret this day until I could fix it, and the possibility that I could have a civil conversation with Thalia now was slim to none. I watched as the sun began setting over the trees, the early campfire beginning to die off as the coals were removed by Hestia herself.

Campers began to head towards the forest, ready for battle. The Ares cabin came up to me and sneered, probably not liking the fact that I was on their team. Clarisse didn't, however, and acknowledged me with a slight nod. I did my best to look like my normal self, but it was hard. I couldn't stop thinking about what I did to Thalia.

We continued walking to the forest and as our team spread out to the opposite sides of the forest for the flanking plan, Clarisse attempted to speak to me. I didn't pay attention at first. It was kind of like those Charlie Brown shows. _Wah-wah-waah wah wah._

"Jackson!" Clarisse snarled.

"What?" I snapped back irritated.

"Listen to me!"

"And why do I have to?"

"What's wrong with you?"

"Well, I'm sorry, Ms. _I'm-the-boss-and-I-must-lead-everyone-to-death_," I said with gritted teeth. "Maybe you should learn that when people look like they're bothered by events that have occurred to them, they're actually _bothered_."

She gave me a glare with seemingly glowing red eyes. "Don't you dare insult me!"

"And what are you going to do about it, La Rue? We have a game to play so if you don't mind, I'm going to get their flag." I took a deep breath. "You know, I should thank you. Now we should totally win."

"And how?"

"I'm angry," I replied. "And it's all thanks to you." I sprinted off.

"Woah, get back here, Jackson!" she shouted.

Ignoring Clarisse's shouts, I ran across the border line and was immediately met with one of Beckendorf's traps. I had to be cautious in my footsteps, otherwise I would immediately be snatched up by a net that would spin constantly so that I couldn't get out that quick. Plus, it would make me very dizzy.

_Whoosh!_ An arrow whizzed past my face.

I grabbed a hold onto my knife and prepared to throw it. I noticed a slight shadow move in the bushes and I unleashed my short-bladed weapon. I saw a figure collapse in the bushes grabbing the side of his or her face in agony. I whirled around to meet a dropping figure. It was a Hermes kid. He looked scared but brave. I just smirked and disarmed him. "I'll let you go free if you don't tell anyone I'm coming."

He nodded shakily and I let him go. I ran around Beckendorf's trap. All around me I could see the distractions by the Ares and Apollo kids working. I figured Clarisse was initially supposed to go with a small team to attack through the middle, but I would go instead, you know, because I was already here.

"Get Percy!" someone yelled from the right side.

I poured on the speed and ended up bursting into a clearing where the flag for the other team was. In the clearing was the person I wanted to talk to most at the moment: Thalia.

She seemed to be muttering something to herself, but gave me a strong stare.

Ì watched her whistle, and as two people dropped from the trees on either side of me, she stepped forward to challenge me. She held her spear tightly and her shield was held up to protect her abdomen.

"Percy," a male voice taunted. "You want our flag? You'll have to take us all on."

I looked over to see Luke giving me a playful grin. He seemed to not notice that I had a problem going on with Thalia. "So," he said. "Clarisse isn't coming for the flag. That's a pity, but we're still going to win anyways."

"Let me guess. Annabeth's going for the flag invisibly."

"Yup."

"Jackson!" a voice yelled from a distance. "I'll kill you!"

"Looks like Annabeth already got the flag," Luke said. "You're never going to take this and be able to get back in time."

But I wasn't paying attention to him. My eyes were locked on Thalia, who was staring right through me. I focused on every little detail of her: the sadness deep in her eyes, the pain she felt thinly spread on the surface of her face, and the anger she felt towards me for rejecting her all over her body. Her blue eyes seemed dull, as if the electric look in her eyes had dimmed. She no longer looked like the daughter of Zeus, strong and bold.

I cursed Aphrodite. Why did she have to make Thalia feel like this? She shouldn't play with her feelings. Her liking me had to have been Aphrodite's doing. I mean, who would fall in love with me. The very idea was preposterous.

"Then I'll deal with you quickly," I said to Luke after a while.

I bolted quickly between the warriors of Luke's team, smashing their heads with the hilt of my sword and roundhouse kicking them as hard as I could. I acted in pure anger, venting all of it out on people who didn't deserve it. But this was a game. Just because I am usually a nice person doesn't mean I won't send people to the infirmary if they get cocky. Pretty soon I had disarmed Luke, and he was unconscious on the ground.

"Shouldn't you go protect your own flag?" Thalia asked suddenly.

I turned to face her. "Two things, Thalia. First, I wouldn't care if Clarisse lost. It's cool to make her seem cool to her cabinmates, but she will always be a rival in my eyes. Second, Clarisse would never go on defense. She'd put her troops on defense as she goes on the attack. You always have to know your enemies more than your friends."

She stepped toward me and unarmed herself. Her spear shrunk back down into a Mace canister, and her shield shrunk down into a charm bracelet. She grabbed the flag down from the side of the tree and handed it over to me. She gave a small smile. "Friends or not friends, it's all the same...though it's not a flower..."

A smile broke across my face. "Even then, I should be the one to give the flowers to you."

Her smile turned sad. "I hate flowers. They're too sappy. But...I'm sorry for avoiding you. It was just disheartening. But I remembered something you told me during the school year. _If you fail_—"

"—_just get back up and try again_," I finished grinning. "Cheesy quotes for the win."

"Cliché, too," Thalia added. She sighed. "Maybe what I realized through this is that bad decisions can haunt you, not like the way it did for you, but for me. Sometimes these _bad_ decisions aren't so bad, but they just feel that way. I was certain that I had feelings for Luke, but maybe it was just because I forced myself to. Giving him up wasn't necessarily bad because I realized my true feelings."

"Yeah. I'm sorry, Thalia," I said.

"It's fine."

"No, actually. I'm sorry but I gotta win." I shoved Thalia to the ground and made a break for it.

"Damn you, Percy!" I heard her yell from behind me. I just laughed to myself and continued running. I swerved around trees and ducked around branches, pretending as if I were in an action movie. Thunder rumbled in the sky and I immediately knew Thalia was hunting for me. My heartbeat pounded in my head as I dashed through the forest, fighting occurring all around me. I could hear the clashing of metal and the battle cries of the warriors as they met. Thunder still echoed in the dimming sky. The feeling of running through the forested area seemed so natural to me, the trees like natural buildings to me. If the camp had an open field rather than a forest, I would have felt unprotected and vulnerable. On offense in this forest, I feel like nothing could stop me; and on defense, I would use the element of surprise and the shadows against my enemies. Tactics was one of my fortes.

As I neared the creek some Apollo defenders up in the trees noticed me and set up a defense line to cover my rear. I watched as they let their arrows fly and strike the helmets of a couple Hermes warriors trying to defend against me. The blunt tips of the arrows smashed into the side of their helmets causing them to crumple in a heap.

I suddenly got a feeling in my chest and instinctively I dove to the side. I rolled back up to face Thalia, who just fired a bolt of lightning at the Apollo defenders. The trees they had been fortifying in collapsed like dominoes.

"Jackson!" a voice yelled off to my right.

Behind me voices screamed, "The Athena girl's got it! Get her!"

"Just you and me, Perseus," Thalia taunted.

I gritted my teeth. "You know I hate that name."

"Too bad, _Perseus_," she said. She held her spear level to my chest and her shield up for protection. I kept my sword hand close to the watch Tyson had made for me, ready to defend against an attack. "One step and you're toast," she threatened.

"One more taunt and you become roasted duck," I threatened back. "Ducks are birds, are they not?"

"You can't electrocute me."

"But I know how to electrocute you indirectly."

She suddenly got a smirk on her face. I had a feeling that she was thinking to stall time so that Annabeth could cross the boundary line before I was done talking. It was unfortunate that I wasn't stupid. I love mythology books, honestly. "Well, would you care to explain the details to me?"

I smiled. "I would but then I'd lose Capture the Flag. We can team up next time and maybe you'll win." I spun 180 degrees, but before I could take a step, Thalia blasted a spidery arc of lightning towards me.

"One step and you're fried fish," she threatened.

I sighed and closed my eyes. I really hoped Annabeth still had quite a ways to go to get across. I prayed to my father that that was true and backflipped. I flipped all the way behind Thalia, capped my sword, picked up Thalia and slung her over my shoulder, and sprinted across the boundary line.

The conch shell blew signaling the end of the game.

As campers started pouring out of the forest, I let Thalia down (who looked pretty pissed) and watched as the Athena flag turned into the Poseidon flag, a golden trident woven beautifully in the center of the majestic flag.

"The winner of today's Capture the Flag is the red team!" Chiron announced. The Apollo kids came up to cheer for me, and so did the Aphrodite and Demeter campers. I was grossed out when the perfume freaks all kiss me on the cheek but was grateful when the Demeter kids settled for high-fives and handshakes. The Ares kids, however, looked pretty pissed. Especially Clarisse who was fuming at me. So much for praising her as the Cyclops killer.

Luke was sent off to the infirmary along with the friends he had teamed up with. Chiron said I hurt them pretty badly, but there was nothing that the Apollo kids couldn't fix. Annabeth came up to me and gave me a hug to congratulate, but asked, "Did you really have to hurt Luke that much? I mean, he could be hurt pretty badly. Is there something different about you after you spent time at your father's palace?"

_No, and yes._ No, I didn't have to hurt Luke that much. Yes, there is something different about me after I spent time at my father's palace. It's called coming back and finding out the person you thought you didn't like and thought liked Luke as much as your little sister did likes you and that you like her back. Or maybe it's love. I didn't say that out loud, obviously, but that's what I thought as she continued talking about how life was going for her.

"Yeah, that's great, Annabeth," I said after five minutes of talking. Everyone was heading back to the campfire, just for more marshmallows and s'mores. I watched as the campfire was lit again and the campers cheery mood lit up the fire. It glowed a bright orange and the fire was seven feet high.

"Anyways," said Annabeth. "I'll see you guys tomorrow. I'm really tired. Ares kids are still dumb enough to trick, though." She yawned. "And good job on winning both events, Percy."

"It doesn't mean much to me but thanks," I replied. Thalia and I waved as Annabeth disappeared into the shadows that were beginning to cover camp. It was a clear summer day so the moon shined down with a great brightness, like glowing cheese.

"Ah, the son and daughter of my brothers," a childish voice said next to me. The words felt powerful in my ears though. I turned to see an eight year old girl standing there looking up at us. "I hear you two are feeling a little...hopeless."

Thalia and I glanced at each other. "No... _What?_ We're not...hopeless."

"Maybe you'd say so on the surface, but look deep down into the pit of your soul," she said. Then a smile broke out on her childish face. "Come with me, Percy and Thalia."

* * *

We sat down on either side of the goddess of the hearth at the hearth.

I didn't mean the hearth on Olympus. I meant the hearth that was right in the center of the U-shape of cabins, as if it were the heart of camp. It shone bright and high like the campfire, but this one was controlled completely by Hestia.

"Why do you want to talk to us, Lady Hestia?" Thalia asked.

"Well, for starters, Percy here was the first camper to speak to me in a long time," she replied. "It was because I stepped down from my position as an Olympian. Now most demigods disregard me." She sighed sadly. "But I have learned to cope with it. I simply still exist because of the minds of outcasts and kind-hearted people. Even some gods and goddesses have forgotten about me. Your fathers still regard me as a goddess, though. That is all right."

"Wow, that's kind of sad," Thalia remarked. "Why is it that people ignore you so much? Don't they learn that you keep the hearth going?"

"It's not that, Thalia," I responded. "I remember learning somewhere that immortal beings can fade. It's even worse than a mortal dying, Thalia. They disappear and can never return."

"That is true, young hero," Hestia approved. "Many of the oldest immortals have long been forgotten and have disappeared forever. Some, who have had family disappear, wish to disappear but cannot because they are still remembered. It is a pain and tragic story being immortal is. You must remember, Percy, that being immortal has its benefits, but your friends and loved ones will die before your own eyes, while you continue to live on forever. Unless maybe you are a Hunter, but the way Artemis treats men is...not correct."

"Not correct?"

"No. Unfortunately, power has always been in the favor of males and I believe will continue to be. That is part of the reason why Artemis dislikes them. She is like her father. She wants to be able to control some things that she cannot. Many men are disgusting, that is true; however, she judges a person just by their sex. It is not right. Women should have their own power, but the way she does it is not right. Think of the mortals. Though men still...take advantage of women, they are given free rights nowadays. Back in ancient times women were restricted, even in ancient Greece."

Thalia and I nodded, following along.

"Then there is love herself." Hestia shook her head disapprovingly. "I agree that love and war go together, but what she feels toward Ares is _not_ love. Love is completely different. I must warn you two, Aphrodite loves torturing humans. Like I said, love and war _definitely_ go together."

"Look, Lady Hestia," Thalia stepped in. "I appreciate you trying to talk to us, but we really are fine. There is nothing to worry about."

"Hopeless," she stated. "I never said anything about you being _fine_." She smiled innocently.

"What do you mean by hopeless?"

"Go for it," she replied. I wondered if she knew about my father's letter to me. She gave me a look that made me realize she knew all about it. "I'm trying to help save a lot of trouble here. I am the oldest and youngest child of Kronos: born first and regurgitated last. A loving home is what I represent, and you two need to be able to live with each other knowing about what the other thinks of you."

"Why do you have to help us?" I asked. "Shouldn't the experience be to figure out how to live with each other without any help?"

Hestia shook her head. "You need to be as close as possible to be able to endure what will happen soon. A leaning shoulder is what you will both need. Remember, if you ever need help, come home. Do not be a victim of the Devil's Triangle."

"The Bermuda Triangle?"

"No, but you will learn what it is soon." Hestia turned to look out towards the amphitheater. "It looks as though you two must be off to bed now. I will see you two later. And remember: don't get caught in the Devil's Triangle."

And with that, the goddess of the hearth disappeared into the flames of the hearth.

I turned to Thalia with a slightly worried look. "The Devil's Triangle. It's another name for the Bermuda Triangle, but if Hestia isn't referring to that... It doesn't sound so good."

"She said that something will happen soon that we need to be _close_ for," Thalia put in. "What could possibly happen that could be that bad?"

I stared morosely into the hearth, which continuously fed me hope. What had Chiron said? Tyche's fortune cookies were false hopes and dreams? I wondered if that was the same thing with Hestia. Maybe she was speaking on hunches and what she believed would happen. But there was that other side to my own accusation. Hestia was too kind to want to lie to us. Just because she was getting involved with me and Thalia didn't mean she was like the other gods, right? I remembered long ago when I spoke to Hestia. She did not seem or mean in any kind of way. She represented the hearth and home, the sacred fire and the circle. She was the most "complete" goddess in many ways.

"I dunno but if Hestia thinks it's going to be bad...it's probably going to be bad."

Thalia sighed. "Listen. About everything in the past few days...I'm sorry I started all of this. I should have just shut my mouth from the beginning."

"No, it's fine, Thalia." I smiled at her kindly. Her eyes looked electrifying in the glowing light of the fire. Just by looking at her the Green Day song I knew best, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, popped up into my head. I wasn't sure why I thought of them every time I looked at her, but I think it had to do with the fact she liked them. "You're aren't on a boulevard of broken dreams, Thalia."

She let a chuckle loose. "You _suck_ at that kind of talk."

"I do, don't I?" I admitted.

We laughed together once more. The campers were getting within hearing distance, their voices getting increasingly louder as they shuffled towards their cabins to get ready to go to sleep for the night.

"Kronos says that we can't trust our friends," I said, looking out at the sea of campers. "Hestia says we need to be as close as ever. Maybe Hestia wasn't just referring to us. Maybe she was referring to me, you, Luke and Annabeth. I think that Kronos is just trying to manipulate us into thinking we can't trust each other." I turned to her. "Team forever?" I stuck out a hand.

"Team forever," she agreed. Instead of taking my hand, she tightly embraced me. I was a little surprised, but I stood up and hugged her back. In our embrace, campers began filing with sight of us. I heard some of them exclaim something about us but I didn't really care.

"We'll stick together, no matter what, right?" I asked.

"Together."

"_We're together forever_," I sang in a fake opera voice. "_Nothing will cut us off! Friends, we'll be forever. Until we die and head to Elysium!_"

Thalia laughed as I sang. I continued singing randomly and terribly as Thalia made comments on how I was terrible at it. Some of the Apollo campers passed by and sang with me, acting as if they were terrible opera singers as well. Many campers were slightly entertained, but a lot of them were tired. Once the final campers had entered their cabins, I finally noticed Annabeth standing a few feet away from us tapping her foot to a certain beat.

She gave me a pointed look. "When I was in the infirmary," she started, "I realized that without each other, meaning Luke, me and you two, we wouldn't be able to get as far as we've gotten thus far."

"What do you mean?" I asked. She was saying something similar to what Hestia had told us.

"I mean, we should stick together, the four of us," she explained. "Together, we could eradicate Kronos forever and—"

"_Together, forever! Together for_—"

"Oh, shut up, Percy," Thalia whined. "You sound so crappy."

"At least I'm not singing a _love_ song," I replied, giving her a pointed look. "Besides, you'd hate the stuff. Green Day is more your type."

"Wake Me Up When September Ends," Thalia sighed. "That's a good song."

"Anyways," Annabeth drawled, "we have to stick together as a team. Team?" She held her hands up as a signal for a hug to secure the promise.

"Team," Thalia and I chorused. Then we group hugged.

"This may just turn out to be a good school year," I grinned.

"Dude, school is never fun," Thalia remarked.

"Eh, who knows? Maybe teachers will stop being boring."

"In your dreams."

"Actually, in the dreams of mortals. You see, we don't _have _to go to school and—"

"Percy. I'm the daughter of Athena and even I don't want you to keep talking."

"You're still a nerd," I said.

"Nerds don't dump a giant bucket of perfume on themselves every morning."

"I'm not a nerd and I don't do that."

"I'm talking about mortals, Thalia."

"So what? Carefully word your sentences to not offend me."

"You know, what? Let's just go to sleep," I interrupted. "I have a lot to think about and it begins with my feelings."

"Yeah, sorry," Thalia apologized again.

Annabeth frowned. "What are you sorry for? He's talking about..." She looked at the two of us confused. She opened her mouth once and then closed it, sort of like a fish. Then her mouth formed a perfect O and she nodded awkwardly.

"I mean, you already know that I...you know."

"About Luke?"

"Yeah. He's changed so much ever since you disappeared, Percy. I don't know, it's almost as if he was breaking out of his Thalia shell." She looked at Thalia with a grateful look. "I'm sorry, Thalia, that you had to sacrifice him because I know you liked him. I just..."

"I know, Annabeth," Thalia smiled and ruffled the young blonde's hair. "It isn't so bad, though."

"Well, you girls have your talk. I need sleep." To prove that, I yawned. "See you two tomorrow."

"Good night, Percy," they said in unison.

I quickly slipped into my cabin, looked once at Tyson's bed, smiled and lay down in my own. I looked up at the cool blue ceiling and smiled even wider. There was no way Kronos was going to split our group up. Luke, Annabeth, Thalia and I would fight against him, no matter the cost. I knew at the end my life would be sacrificed to save Olympus. I had to make the decision that would save it. I promised to myself I wouldn't join the Titans. As my eyes closed, all of my problems seemed to float away, like the currents of the oceans were pulling them away temporarily. In a short time, they would come back, but all I knew was that Thalia and I had figured out our problem, and Luke, Annabeth, Thalia and I would be a team forever.

At least, that's what I hoped.

* * *

**Hey everyone,**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter. Thanks for the hundred who've put this on their favorites, followed and reviewed.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _any_ excerpts taken from Rick Riordan's book _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters._**

**I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.**

**With best regards,  
SharkAttack719**


	22. Epilogue

**Περσεύς**

**Epilogue**

_Hello Journal,_

_This message I write from the future to you. Whatever kind of reader you are, a young pre-teen, a teenager, or an adult, I must warn you. The future is not something to give away. In the future, things will happen that you will dislike, I guarantee. You will hate me for what I do soon, but for now, I write about the summarized adventure of what happened after the Sea of Monsters._

_Chiron was happy with everything after I came back. He was given his position back as the activities director, and then I could talk freely with him about the Romans. He seemed a lot more relaxed. For the next two weeks, I spent at least an hour every day learning about the Romans and reviewing work. I learned of their culture, what they believed in, and that they loved the west. Chiron had warned me to never find their camp, so I obliged. I feared that finding them would only increase the difficulty in which my problem would have come up. I was glad I decided to do what I decided to do._

_Another thing, each day, Luke and Annabeth became a bigger part of my life, just like the way things used to be. Annabeth said that she would be staying with us during the school year, deciding that she didn't want to go back to her parents in Virginia. Thalia and Luke were ecstatic at that fact. I wasn't to say I wasn't as well, but I just felt that my relationship with Thalia was very, very strained. Luke and Annabeth got on very well, and by the time it was Christmas they started dating. I was happy for them, but Thalia and I hadn't really done anything to help our own relationship. I still had my doubts about dating her. I'm not telling you my decision or the consequences of it, but I'll just say that I'm glad I did what I did._

_You could say I was glad I did a lot of things in my life, but the one thing I wish I never did was choose to leave Bianca and Nico behind. I hope they're all right now... I'm just kidding, Journal. You all know what is going to happen to them. Let's just say they're actually doing pretty good. I shouldn't give too much away, but neither of them dies. That much I'll tell you. I don't know how you will take the news, and I hope I haven't ruined the next story for you._

_Now, I know you've read the stories by that mortal author, Rick Riordan, based on my true story that I told him. Now, I post my real story. Since you've read the stories by Rick Riordan, you know what he makes my character like. I warn you, I don't act the same as the way my character does in his stories. There are some fair bits of changes, though his books were based on my true story, so the plot is relatively the same. I want you all to understand that who I date doesn't have much relevance to whether my life is good or bad. In the fictional books I date Annabeth. Should I date her in life again, it doesn't mean it's old news and overused. Should I date someone else, it doesn't mean I hate the way the mortal author portrayed me. In fact, I think he made a very well detailed story of what an alternate universe could offer._

_I write this letter by pen and paper to show the old times when pen and paper were mainstream. Computers and technology have destroyed the humans. I would blame the gods, but where I am now, they would not accept that. I write to you in the past to tell you what happens and what is to come._

_I thank you all,_

_Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon_

* * *

**Epilogue Part II**

She watched as he walked out of the shadows, as if they loved to envelop him. He was no son of Hades, she knew that, but the shadows seemed to enjoy licking at his clothes.

The dim light shining from the stars and the moon high in the night sky reflected off of his face, which countered the darkness that he held inside of him. He shouldn't have been a bad person, she knew him well enough to know he had a kind heart inside, but he chose his path and she could do nothing to stop him.

"Silena," he said quietly. "How are you doing, my little spy?"

She looked at him pityingly. "Listen. Do I really have to keep being the spy? Aren't there other demigods that you can _use_? Actually, why am I giving you ideas to help spy on camp? I know you—"

"Don't say my name," he hissed at Silena. "I can't be caught. You were about to say my name. I'm not the same person I used to be, Silena. It was all an act."

"You have friends here," she said to him. "What about your closest friends? What will they think when they find out you come here to scam me into being the spy?"

He gave her a cruel smile. "They won't even be focusing on the fact that I'm scamming you. You are the spy, and the spy, in the eyes of the campers, must be executed."

"Stop talking in that old-fashioned voice," she whispered hoarsely. "Seriously, every time I meet with you your style of voice gets older and older. You know you don't have to sound like you're from Victorian England."

"And how would you know what people in Victorian England would sound like?"

Silena pursed her lips. "I...I don't, but I know you're sounding much more formal than before. You used to be nice and fun-loving."

"Well, that time has passed." He gave Silena a cold look. "Why should I be happy when I'm caught between a rock and a hard place? Would you be happy if you feel the gods should be torn down, but the Titans are no good as well? That's exactly how I feel. You are only the spy. You have no idea what must happen and what is going to be forced upon me. There can only be one who can take my place, and he would never betray the gods."

"Percy?"

"Yes. Not even _he_ would be able to."

"Why convert _him_? What's so special about _him_?"

"None of your business," he snapped. "Now, I'm here to tell you something about the coming events. During winter, Atlas will rise. I will hold the sky as he sends a creature to capture a child of the Big Three."

"But Thalia and Percy are the only children of the Big Three. They won't be caught easily."

He smiled at her mischievously. Not responding to her comment, he continued, "When the child is capture, he or she will be placed under the weight of the sky and will eventually bow down to the Titan Lord. You must get into a council if our plan goes awry and Chiron sends a quest out to save the child of one of the Big Three. You understand?"

"I don't—"

"There are no exceptions," he growled. She jumped, scared from his threatening voice. "Do your duty or your position as spy will be revealed to camp and everyone will kick you out."

She trembled with fear. "Okay. I understand."

"Good." He smiled joyfully. "Now brighten up, Silena. A Golden Age is coming, and you will be a part of it."

She nodded shakily as the boy disappeared back into the shadows, as if the darkness consumed him. She heard the shifting of rocks and before she knew that she was being watched by old eyes, she was all alone, walking back to her cabin weeping her heart out as she became caught in the Devil's Triangle: greed, ambition and power.


	23. New Story

**Just wanted to let you guys know that the next story is up.**

**Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Into the Darkness**


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